folk etymology
noun
Meaning
- A popular explanation for the origin of a term which has been rejected as false by expert etymologists.
- A modification of a word or its spelling resulting from a misunderstanding of its etymology, as with island, belfry, and hangnail.
Etymology / origin
English from the 1880s (Abram Smythe Palmer, 1882), a calque of German Volksetymologie (1820s, in 1821 as Volks-Etymologie in J. A. Schmeller's Die Mundarten Bayerns grammatisch dargestellt).
- Volksetymologie(German)→
- folk etymology (English)
- Relations: calque
Related words
Sources
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