Dord
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[[image:dord.jpg|right|thumb|350px|An excerpt from Webster's showing the non-existent word "dord"]]
'''''Dord''''' is one of the most famous [[lexicographic error|error]]s in [[lexicography]], a word accidentally created by the [[Merriam-Webster|G. and C. Merriam Company]]'s staff and included in the second edition of its ''[[Webster's Dictionary|New International Dictionary]]'', in which the term is defined as "density".
[[Philip Babcock Gove]], an editor at [[Merriam-Webster]] who became editor-in-chief of ''[[Webster's Third New International Dictionary]]'', explained why "dord" was included in the dictionary in a letter to the journal ''American Speech'', fifteen years after the error was caught.
On [[July 31]], [[1931]], [[Austin M. Patterson]], Webster's [[chemistry]] editor, sent in a slip reading "D or d, cont./density." This was intended to add "[[density]]" to the existing list of words that the letter "D" can abbreviate. The slip somehow went astray, and the phrase "D or d" was misinterpreted as a single, run-together word: ''dord''. (This was a plausible mistake because headwords on slips were typed with spaces between the letters, making "D or d" look very much like "D o r d".) A new slip was prepared for the printer and a part of speech assigned along with a pronunciation. The word got past proofreaders and appeared on page 771 of the dictionary around 1934.
On [[February 28]], [[1939]], an editor noticed "dord" lacked an etymology and investigated. Soon an order was sent to the printer marked "plate change/imperative/urgent". The word "dord" was excised and the definition of the adjacent entry "[[Dore furnace]]" was expanded from "A furnace for refining [[dore bullion]]" to "a furnace in which dore bullion is refined" to close up the space. Gove wrote that this was "probably too bad, for why shouldn't ''dord'' mean 'density'?"
== References ==
*[[Philip Babcock Gove]]. "The History of 'Dord'". ''American Speech''. Volume 29 (1954). Pages 136-138.
== See also ==
{{wiktionary}}
* [[Fictitious entry]]
* [[Esquivalience]]
==External links==
*[http://www.snopes.com/language/mistakes/dord.htm "Dord" at Snopes.com]
*[http://www.fun-with-words.com/websters_dord.html "Dord" at fun-with-words.com; quotes Gove article]
[[Category:Fictitious entries]]
[[Category:Lexicography]]
[[Category:Words]]