Meaning of nihilartikel | Babel Free

Definitions

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.

Examples

“2005 May 1, Eve Maler, “The Language Log”, Pushing String, at www.xmlgrrl.com https://web.archive.org/web/20061111100505/http://www.xmlgrrl.com/blog/archives/2005/05/01/the-language-log/ 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.”

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

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

CEFR level