幽霊語 (ghost_word) という興味深い対象について，hellog で何度か取り上げてきた．

　・ 「#2725. ghost word」 ([2016-10-12-1])
　・ 「#5795. ghost word 再訪」 ([2025-03-09-1])
　・ 「#5796. ghost word を OED で引いてみた」 ([2025-03-10-1])

　すでに過去の記事で触れたが，この用語を造ったのは高名な文献学者 Walter W. Skeat (1835--1912) である．1886年5月2日，Skeat がロンドン言語学会にて記念講演を行なった．その講演のなかで，"Report upon 'Ghost-words,' or Words which Have no Real Existence" と題する報告がなされている．
　以下に引用するのは，辞書編纂者でもある Skeat が，幽霊語を OED などの辞書に採録してはならないことを力説している箇所である．幽霊語の具体例として abacot (= by-cocket) を挙げている．

Of all the work which the Society has at various times undertaken, none has ever had so much interest for us, collectively, as the New English Dictionary. Dr. Murray, as you will remember, wrote on one occasion a most able article, in order to justify himself in omitting from the Dictionary the word abacot, defined by Webster as "the cap of state formerly used by English kings, wrought into the figure of two crowns." It was rightly and wisely rejected by our Editor on the ground that there is no such word, the alleged form being due to a complete mistake. There can be no doubt that words of this character ought to be excluded; and not only so, but we should jealously guard against all chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, being mere coinages due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors. We may well allow that Ogilvie's Imperial Dictionary is an excellent book of its class, and that the latest editor, Mr. Annandale, has very greatly improved it; but I cannot think that he was was (sic) well-advised in devoting to Abacot twenty-seven lines of type, merely in order to quote Dr. Murray's reasons for rejecting it. Still less can I approve of his introduction of a small picture intended to represent an "Abacot," copied from the great seal of Henry VII.; it would have been much better to insert the picture under the correct form by-cocket. (351--52)

　ちなみに，皮肉なことに最新の OED Online では abacot が立項されている．もとの †bycocket については，次のような定義が与えられている．

A kind of cap or headdress (peaked before and behind): (a) as a military headdress, a casque; (b) as an ornamental cap or headdress, worn by men and women.

The two crowns [? of England and France] with which the bycocket of Henry VI was 'garnished' or 'embroidered', were, of course, no part of the ordinary bycocket.

　Skeat の引用の半ば "we should jealously guard against all chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, . . ." にみえる副詞 jealously の解釈について，昨日の heldio 配信回「#1383. 英文精読回 --- 幽霊語をめぐる文の jealously をどう解釈する？」で取り上げた．Spotify のビデオポッドキャストとしても配信しているので，ぜひそちらからもどうぞ．

　・ Skeat, Walter W. "Report upon 'Ghost-words,' or Words which Have no Real Existence." in the President's Address for 1886. Transactions of the Philological Society for 1885--87. Vol. 2. 350--80.

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