nihilartikel
noun·/ˈniː.hɪlˌɑːr.tɪ.kəl/
A deliberately fictitious entry planted in a reference work. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and directories sometimes include these false entries as copyright traps or tests of reader attentiveness. A nihilartikel is "nothing" dressed as knowledge, intentional rather than accidental.
The scholar smiled when she met the nihilartikel—an invented biography tucked in among the real ones like a watermark made of words.
Etymology
From German Nihilartikel, a compound of Latin nihil "nothing" and German Artikel "article." Bluntly elegant: an "article about nothing," inserted so that copying can be proved or readers tested for attentiveness.
Related Words
Mountweazela famed kind of fictitious entry; cultural cousin
trap streeta map-maker’s equivalent decoy
copyright trapthe function the nihilartikel often serves
hoaxthe broader practice, though not always the motive