Where it sits
Real words reach dictionaries after people use them. Esquivalience went the other way round.
What it doesn't mean
It's a 21st-century invention. Its 'late 19th century' etymology was part of the fake.
Not this kind. A ghost word like dord is an accident; esquivalience was planted on purpose as a trap, the kind of entry known as a mountweazel.
What it really means
Dictionaries are supposed to follow words: people use a word, lexicographers find the evidence, and only then does it get an entry. Esquivalience went the other way. The dictionary came first, and the word had no users at all.
It appeared in the first edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary in 2001, defined as "the willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities". It even came with a convincing history: late 19th century, perhaps from French esquiver, "dodge, slink away". All of it was invented.
The purpose was protection. If you suspect a rival has copied your dictionary, a fake word makes the case: a word nobody ever used can only have come from your book. Editor-in-chief Erin McKean told The New Yorker that Oxford put it in to protect the copyright of the dictionary's electronic text.
The fake came to light in 2005. When the second edition appeared, word got out that it contained an invented entry beginning with "e". The writer Henry Alford went through the "e" section, narrowed it to six suspects, and sent them to lexicographers. Most picked esquivalience. McKean confirmed it, and said an editor named Christine Lindberg had come up with it. The aim, she said, was "a word that could not arise in nature". She also admitted that it shouldn't really have an l in it.
By then, Alford reported, esquivalience had already appeared on Dictionary.com, credited to another dictionary. The trap had worked.
It's a fitting exhibit for a site called 404: a word with a definition and no history, whose only meaning was "this was copied".
Where it comes from
French — to dodge, slink away (the fake entry's own suggested source)
an invented ending; Erin McKean admitted there 'shouldn't be an l in there'
The entry gave it a fake history — 'late 19th cent.: perhaps from French esquiver' — to make it look like a real dictionary word.
- 2001
The New Oxford American Dictionary's first edition includes esquivalience, to protect the copyright of the electronic version of its text.
- 2005
With the second edition out, a rumour spreads of a fake 'e' word. Henry Alford's search for The New Yorker ends with editor-in-chief Erin McKean confirming it.
- 2005
Alford reports the word had already turned up on Dictionary.com, sourced to another dictionary — exactly the copying the trap was meant to catch.
- By 2006
Wiktionary records the word beginning to see real use, after it was identified as fictitious.
In real life
- "That's not procrastination," she said, "that's esquivalience — and yes, I know it's a fake word."
- The trivia question asked which word Oxford's American dictionary invented to catch copiers; nobody got 'esquivalience'.
- His essay on copyright traps opens with esquivalience and ends with a street that only exists on maps.
Questions
Q01What does esquivalience mean?
The New Oxford American Dictionary defined it as 'the willful avoidance of one's official responsibilities'. But the word was invented by the dictionary's editors, so before 2001 it had no meaning in actual use.
Q02Why would a dictionary include a fake word?
To catch copying. If a rival dictionary reproduces an invented word, it shows it copied rather than doing its own research. Erin McKean told The New Yorker it was added to protect the copyright of the electronic version of the text.
Q03Who invented esquivalience?
An editor named Christine Lindberg, according to Henry Alford's 2005 New Yorker article. The editors wanted, in McKean's words, 'a word that could not arise in nature'.
Q04Is esquivalience a real word now?
Only just. Wiktionary records it beginning to see actual use by 2006, after it was exposed, with later quotations from books and novels. It remains famous for being fake.
Sources
- Henry Alford, 'Not a Word' — The New Yorker, 29 August 2005.
- New Oxford American Dictionary: fictitious entry — Wikipedia.
- esquivalience — Wiktionary.