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Alexicographic error is an inaccurate entry in adictionary. Such problems, because they undercut the intention of providing authoritative guidance to readers and writers, attract special attention.
Although dictionaries are often expected to be flawless, mostlexicographers and people who frequently use dictionaries are keenly aware that all dictionaries contain errors. The preparation of dictionaries requires immense time, expertise and concentration, and there are never sufficient human and financial resources available to ensure complete accuracy. In the words of Johnson himself, "Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true."[1]
An early English-language example was the definition ofpastern as "theknee of ahorse" inDr. Johnson's famed 18th-centuryDictionary of the English Language. That would suit the wordfetlock, but the pastern is in fact a long portion of the leg immediately below the fetlock. When a woman asked him why he had made the error, Johnson, according toBoswell, replied, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."[2]
In the 1930s,Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition accidentally documented, for four years, a supposed word "dord", whose only basis was a clerical error bythe publisher.[3]
The first edition (1987) of theCollinsCOBUILD English Language Dictionary contained an entry for a verbhink, which it said was conjugatedhinks, hinking, hinked and which it defined as follows: "If youhink, you think hopefully and unrealistically about something."[4] The entry is aghost word included by the editors to trapplagiarists. The wording is the result of anin-house joke. However, some reviewers took it seriously, speculating for example that it is "clearly an error for 'think'." The word was removed from later editions.[citation needed]
In the early 21st century, the online andCD-ROM editions of theMacmillan English Dictionary gave two different spoken readings of the headword for the entry "George, St. – the PATRON SAINT of England": the American reading was the correct "Saint George," but the British reading was "George Street." Presumably the British narrator had been given a list of words to read and thecomma after "George" was either missing or overlooked.[citation needed]
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