German

Noun

Nihilartikel m ‎(genitive Nihilartikels, plural Nihilartikel)

1. (nonstandard) A deliberately fictitious entry in an encyclopedia or dictionary, which is intended to be more or less quickly recognized as false by the reader.

English

Noun

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 18, Marc Goodman, “Interesting slam on Wikipedia”, alt.religion.kibology, Usenet

     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.

Synonyms

• (deliberately fictitious entry): Easter egg, Mountweazel

References

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