mountweazel

American  

[mount-wee-zuhl] / ˈmaʊntˌwi zəl /

noun

1. a decoy entry in a reference work, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.

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Etymology

Origin of mountweazel

First recorded in 1975–80; from a fictitious entry in the fourth edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who supposedly died on assignment while covering an explosion for the fictitious Combustibles magazine