dictionaries and coinage

[Frank Abate]

Barry P said:

>>
OED has "all the tea in China" from Eric Partridge's slang dictionary
(1937).  Dictionaries never coin words.  Partridge says it's Australian.
<<

Not quite the case.

An old Merriam Unabridged had a "ghost entry" -- can't recall it at the
moment -- a word that did not exist at all, anywhere, and slipped in by
accident or prank.  Joanne?

Also, some dict editors have planted false stuff in dicts to be able to
detect piracy of their data.

And some dicts actually do try to coin words, esp. the fluff sort of pop
reference dicts.  So the statement is a bit too broad.  But I don't think
that Partridge would have made something up out of whole cloth.

It is true that the major US college and larger dicts, and UK equivalents,
do not coin words.

Frank Abate