nihilartikel

See also: Nihilartikel

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Nihilartikel, apparently coined as a hoax in the German-language Wikipedia in 2003 and later picked up by the English Wikipedia, from where it spread to blogs, books, etc., which are now used again as references for these sites, leading to a form of citogenesis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnaɪ.(h)ɪlˌɑɹt.ɪkl̩/
• (copying Latin and German) IPA^(key): /ˈniː.hiːl.ɑːɹtˌiː.kəl/
• Hyphenation: ni‧hil‧art‧i‧kel

Noun

Examples
esquivalience jungftak

nihilartikel (plural nihilartikels)

1. A deliberately fictitious entry in an encyclopedia or academic work, generally identifiable as false, usually included to brand the intellectual property so copies can be identified.

   Synonym: Mountweazel

   • 2005 May 1, Eve Maler, “The Language Log”, Pushing String, at www.xmlgrrl.com [1]

     The post never does find the word it’s looking for, but it eventually alights on a discussion of the Nihilartikel, a fake dictionary or encyclopedia entry created for playful or copyright-trap reasons.

   • 2005 December 17, Marc Goodman, “Interesting slam on Wikipedia”, in alt.religion.kibology‎^[2] (Usenet), message-ID <aYqdnU-48IgKJznenZ2dnUVZ_sydnZ2d@newedgenetworks.com>:

     A nihilartikel was once inserted into Wikipedia that lasted for five months.

   • [2005 December 18, Tom Anderson, “Putney Green”, in uk.transport.london (Usenet):

     There are also fake entries in dictionaries and encyclopedias, known as nihilartikels, which serve the same purpose.]

Hypernyms

• copyright trap

See also

• trap street

Further reading

• fictitious entry on Wikipedia.Wikipedia