nihilartikel

Considered a loan word from German; Latin nihil (“nothing”) and German Artikel (“article”); from a fictitious March 2004 English-language Wikipedia article, referencing a September 2003 article in the German-language Wikipedia now titled Fingierter Lexikonartikel

• IPA^(key): /ˈnäɪ̯.hɪl.ˌɑːɹt.iː.kəl/
• (copying Latin and German) IPA^(key): /ˈniː.hiːl.ɑːɹt.ˌiː.kəl/
• Hyphenation: ni‧hil‧art‧i‧kel
• Rhymes: -aɪhɪlɑː(ɹ)tikəl, -iːhilɑː(ɹ)tiːkəl

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

     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 (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”, uk.transport.london, Usenet

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

• (deliberately fictitious entry): Mountweazel

• copyright trap

• trap street

• 2006 June, David C. Hay, Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map, glossory, page 370, Morgan Kaufmann