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What is a Mountweazel?

Have you ever heard of Lillian Virginia Mountweazel?

The 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia lists Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, as a fountain designer turned photographer who was celebrated for a collection of photographs of rural American mailboxes titled “Flags Up!”

However, nobody has ever heard of her, or seen the famous photographs, because she doesn’t exist! This is a fake entry to protect their copyright. If anyone copied this, it would be obvious that they had stolen from the New Columbia Encyclopedia.

The encyclopedias and dictionaries traditionally used fictitious entries to catch plagiarists.

Origin:
In 2005, the humorist Henry Alford, in an article for the New Yorker first used the term “Mountweazels” to describe fake entries.

Another example of a mountweazel is the word “Esquivalience” in the 2001 edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary. Even maps have been known to plant fake places to protect copyright.

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Word Source: Collins Dictionary and The New Yorker