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Do IMEs offer gibberish non-words when they make suggestions?

I know that there's many words that have the same pronunciation, and therefore
users of IMEs have to choose the correct one. I think 感じ (feeling) versus 漢字
(kanji) would be an example of that.

I'm also aware of different kanji for related, but different concepts, that
have the same pronunciation and are presumably true cognates. I think お祖父さん
(grandfather) and お爺さん (elderly man) would be an example of this.

But do IMEs offer words that are nonsensical gibberish in Japanese? For
example, if I type in "げいこ" into Google Translate's IME, the second option I
get is "芸姑", which isn't found in
[goo.ne.jp](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/srch/all/%E8%8A%B8%E5%A7%91/m0u/) nor
[jisho.org](http://jisho.org/words?jap=%E8%8A%B8%E5%A7%91&eng=&dict=edict). Is
it a real word, or a word that only makes sense in a language other than
Japanese, or gibberish? I once came across someone typing 芸鼓, which similarly
seems to be a doubtful word.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-30T11:54:16.303
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2021-07-28T16:46:32.517
2014-03-09T10:00:27.370
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words orthography input-method
Is 芸姑 a real word?
I can't replicate that result using mozc, which is a Google-originated IME I
use on Linux, or on the standard Windows IME.

In both cases they give 芸子 and then 稽古{けいこ} - the latter probably because of
words like 朝稽古{あさげいこ}.

I think the Google algorithm at some point has managed to confuse 妓 (芸妓) and
姑, perhaps by using some badly OCRed text as input.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-01-30T15:22:05.843
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answer
[The wikipedia article for
芸妓](https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8A%B8%E5%A6%93) says that, in Kyoto,
芸妓 is pronounced げいこ and sometimes written as 芸姑:

> 芸妓を「芸妓（げいこ）」（「芸姑」という表記もあり）、見習を「舞妓（まいこ）」と呼ぶ。

So yes, this seems to be a real but rare word/spelling.
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