mojibake
n.— «Mojibake is a word to describe unintelligible gibberish displayed on a screen or printed on a paper when a software fails to handle encodings or fonts in the data stream. Mojibake is spelled in Japanese as “文字化け” which literally means “ghost characters” or “disguised characters.” Here, a set of ideograms “文字” means “character(s)” and an ideogram “化” means “change(d),” “transform(ed),” “haunt(ed)” or “ghost.”» —“What Is Mojibake?” by Tomohiro Kubota Tomohiro Kubota Oct. 10, 2003. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Leo, a scientIst in Tucson, Arizona, used to live in Japan, where he often heard Japanese speakers using English that wasn’t quite correct. For example, one Japanese friend described someone “full of worry” as scareful. Another...
Book recommendations and the art of apology. Martha and Grant share some good reads, including an opinionated romp through English grammar, a Spanish-language adventure novel, an account of 19th-century dictionary wars, and a gorgeously illustrated...