Once authoritatively published, a ghost word occasionally may be copied widely and enter legitimate usage, or it may eventually be discovered and removed from dictionaries.
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".
Skeat continued with a more drastic example:[2] A similar instance occurs in a misprint of a passage of one of Walter Scott's novels, but here there is the further amusing circumstance that the etymology of the false word was settled to the satisfaction of some of the readers.
The latter writes: "That the word as a misprint should have been printed and read by millions for fifty years without being challenged and altered exceeds the bounds of probability."
Yet when the original manuscript of Sir Walter Scott was consulted, it was found that the word was there plainly written nurse.One edition of The Monastery containing the misprint was published by the Edinburgh University Press in 1820.
The most popular etymology of the word pumpernickel bread—that Napoleon described it as "C'est pain pour Nicole!
[1] An example is "beforemath" derived from "aftermath", having an understandable meaning but not a commonly accepted word.