1128. This week, in honor of Halloween, we look at “ghost words” and phrases, from “ghost runners” in baseball to “ghost forests” made by earthquakes. We also look at the difference between “between” and “among” for collective groups.
1128. This week, in honor of Halloween, we look at “ghost words” and phrases, from “ghost runners” in baseball to “ghost forests” made by earthquakes. We also look at the difference between “between” and “among” for collective groups.
Episodes mentioned in this episode:
1056 - How to be a ghostwriter, with Dan Gerstein
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. Today, in honor of Halloween, we're going to talk about ghostly words and phrases, and then we'll look at the difference between the words "between" and "among."
by Mignon Fogarty
I started thinking about "ghost" phrases for Halloween, and I was surprised how many of them there are. I thought of a lot myself, and then when I started searching, I found even more, and I love some of the stories!
Let's start with my favorite: "ghost words." These are dictionary entries created entirely by mistake.
Back in 2019, I did a whole episode about them — that's episode 734 if you want the full story — but here's a quick example: The word "dord" appeared in Webster's New International Dictionary for years, defined as "density." But "dord" isn't a real word at all. It was supposed to be an abbreviation entry for "density" that read "D or d" (capital D or lowercase d), but someone who worked on the entry misread it as a word spelled D-O-R-D, and thus "dord" was born. This was in 1934. A sharp-eyed editor discovered the error in 1939, and a correction note was sent to the printer, but "dord" wasn't completely exorcized until 1947.
But let's move on to some more common "ghost" phrases:
When your car finally "gives up the ghost," you're using a phrase that works for both death and broken machines. If you look "white as a ghost" or "like you've seen a ghost," you're visibly shaken or pale. And if something doesn't have "a ghost of a chance," well, it has virtually no chance at all. And if the detective's boss in your favorite police procedural tells the star to "stop chasing ghosts," the boss thinks your hero is wasting time chasing something that doesn't exist. (But vindicated in the end.)
A "ghost town" is a place that's been deserted. It could be a literal town, but you can also use the phrase metaphorically, like "Wow, it was a ghost town at the mall this afternoon."
And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one of my favorite recent familects in which Cheri from Florida recounted a family vacation to an amusement park called Ghost Town in the Sky, where one person got so mad at someone else that they have memorialized the fight by using it to gauge the level of anger, asking, "Are you mad? Or are you Ghost Town mad?"
Transportation has at least two types of ghost rides.
A "ghost train" can be a haunted-house ride, but there's also a fascinating British railway concept. In the UK, some train services run at minimum frequency — sometimes just once a week — purely to avoid the cost of formally closing a route or station. They're called ghost trains because they barely exist. Sometimes companies don't even run the train; they substitute a bus instead!
And "ghost flights" are a similar thing. Apparently, airlines sometimes fly mostly empty planes just to keep their airport slots. Sounds wasteful.
And speaking of waste, let's talk about the workplace.
A "ghost employee" is someone on the payroll who doesn't actually work there — usually someone with a family or personal connection to a manager. It's payroll fraud, and auditors specifically look for this practice.
"Ghost kitchens" are a relatively new development: these are restaurants that only do delivery or takeout with no dine-in option. You order online from what seems like a restaurant, but there's no actual restaurant space for customers.
And here's something that seems particularly cruel: "ghost jobs." These are job postings for positions that don't really exist. Why do companies post them? Sometimes to gauge interest, sometimes to make the company look like it's growing, or sometimes just to keep a pipeline of resumes. But imagine spending hours on an application for a job that was never real in the first place. It's outrageous. You want to sic a ghost on people who do that.
And some people think you might find ghosts in the theater. In addition to the superstition about not saying the name of the play "Macbeth" in a theater (actors sometimes call it "the Scottish play" instead), theaters also usually employ a "ghost light" — a single bulb left shining on an empty stage, even overnight. For practical reasons, it's there so people don't trip and hurt themselves in a dark theater. But there's also a superstition that theaters house ghosts, and you need to leave a light on for them.
Here's another fun one for people who love music: "ghost tracks" are unlisted hidden songs on albums or CDs. Remember when Nirvana put "Endless, Nameless" at the end of "Nevermind" after 10 minutes of silence?
And this is pretty cool: before CDs, people could make double-grooved records where the needle might catch different grooves and play different content, which some people think of as hidden tracks. Monty Python's "Matching Tie and Handkerchief" was made this way on one side and is sometimes called a "three-sided" record.
Sticking with the arts, we have "ghostwriters" — people who write for someone else without credit. I actually interviewed Dan Gerstein of Gotham Ghostwriters back in April for episode 1056, and there's a lot more to learn about that industry if you're interested in the world of invisible writers.
Moving on to the digital world, ghost terminology is easy to find here too.
"Ghost mode" is a privacy setting that hides your location or status, like in Snap Chat. But it's also become a more general term for stepping back from social media or social life to focus on work, school, or personal goals. Someone might say, "I'm going ghost mode for finals week."
And you're probably familiar with the idea of "ghosting" someone — completely stopping communication without a warning or explanation. But there are older uses of the term too. In analog television, ghosting meant seeing a double image from signal interference. And in offset printing, ghosting is a defect where faint replicas of images appear where they shouldn't.
The phrase "ghost in the machine" describes an unexplained technical glitch or mysterious system element, and that phrase always reminds me of a book I enjoyed called "Ghost in the Wires" by Kevin Mitnick, the notorious computer hacker from the '70s, '80s, and '90s. That man has some absolutely wild stories!
Sports also have their own ghostly terminology.
A "ghost runner" is an automatic runner placed on second base in extra innings, which is meant to make it easier for teams to score to help shorten long games.
And a "ghost goal" is a disputed score in soccer where the ball may or may not have fully crossed the line.
The phrase "ghost goal" actually came from Chelsea manager José Mourinho after a 2005 Champions League semi-final against Liverpool. His quote about a controversial goal that may not have fully crossed the line gave us this now-common sports term.
In the environment.
"Ghost nets" or "ghost gear" are abandoned fishing equipment that continues trapping and killing marine life. These nets can drift through the ocean for years, creating ongoing devastation.
And "ghost forests" are stands of dead trees, usually from saltwater intrusion or land drop. A few years ago, I was researching areas near the Cascadia Subduction Zone because we were thinking of moving there, and I learned about the spooky ghost forests related to that massive earthquake zone. When land suddenly drops during a major quake, saltwater rushes in and kills entire forests. The dead trees remain standing as eerie reminders of the catastrophic geological events.
So there you have it: ghost words in dictionaries, ghost employees on payrolls, ghost trains barely running, ghost tracks hiding on your favorite albums, and more.
I love how we take this one spooky concept and apply it to everything from technical glitches to fraudulent employees to hidden songs. They all capture the original idea of what a ghost is — something that isn't really or fully there, or maybe shouldn't be there.
by Mignon Fogarty
Next, we’re going to talk about the difference between the words "between" and "among."
You may have noticed that I said we are going to talk about the difference "between" the words "between" and "among." I used the word "between" because I was talking about a choice that involves two distinct words.
Many people believe "between" is just for choices that involve two items, and "among" is for choices that involve more than two items. That can get you to the right answer some of the time, but it’s not quite that simple (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Here’s the deal: You can use the word "between" when you are talking about distinct, individual items even if there are more than two of them. For example, you could say, “She chose between Harvard, Brown, and Yale,” because the colleges are individual things.
The Chicago Manual of Style describes these as one-to-one relationships. Sometimes they are between two items, groups, or people, as in these examples:
Choose between Squiggly and Aardvark.
Let’s keep this between you and me.
Other times they can be between more than two items, groups, or people as in these examples:
The negotiations between the cheerleaders, the dance squad, and the flag team were going well despite the confetti incident.
The differences between English, Chinese, and Arabic are significant.
On the other hand, you use "among" when you are talking about things that aren’t distinct items or individuals. For example, if you were talking about colleges collectively you could say, “She chose among the Ivy League schools.”
If you are talking about a group of people, you also use "among":
Excitement spread among the fans in the arena.
The scandal caused a division among the employees.
Squiggly and Aardvark are among the residents featured in the newsletter.
Part of a Group
"Among" can also indicate that someone is part of a group or left out of a group, as in these examples:
He was glad to find a friend among enemies.
She felt like a stranger among friends.
"Between" and "among" can also tell the reader different things about location or direction. Think about the difference between these two examples:
Squiggly walked between the trees.
Squiggly walked among the trees.
"Squiggly walked between the trees" gives you the idea that he stayed on the path; he either walked between two trees or was on a route that was surrounded by trees.
On the other hand, "Squiggly walked among the trees" gives you more of an idea that he wandered around a park or forest. He may have had an endpoint in mind, but it doesn’t sound as if he went from point A to point B on a defined path.
So remember, "between" is the word you want for two choices, but it has other uses too.
References
Finally, I have a familect story.
Hi, Mignon. This is Cayenne McMillie from Phoenix, Arizona. And I have a familect to share.
One day my husband and I were having some friends coming over for dinner. And we had cooked all day. The kitchen floor was a disaster. But we didn't have time to clean up. So my husband took a white rag and wiped up the floor, and the worst of the floor mess anyway. And when he picked up the rag, there was the imprint of his hand on the rag. Like the handprint on the volleyball in the movie “Castaway.” So we started calling wiping up the floor “wilsoning,” and we still say, “I’m going to wilson the floor, when it needs a touch up.
Anyway, that's our familect. Thanks for a great podcast. You are so appreciated.
Aww. I love movie familects. Thanks, Cayenne.
If you want to share the story of your familect, a special word or phrase you use with your family, or a friendilect, leave a message on the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL or leave a voice message on WhatsApp.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to Morgan Christianson in advertising; Holly Hutchings, director of podcasts; Nat Hoopes in marketing and; Dan Feierabend in audio, and Rebekah Sebastian in marketing, who has a dog named Sherlock.
And I'm Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl and author of "The Grammar Daily" a book of tips, illustrations, and puzzles that makes a great gift. That's all. Thanks for listening.