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Folk etymology

noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A popular explanation for the origin of a term which has been rejected as false by expert etymologists. countable, uncountable

    "Many English folk etymologies involve backronyms."

  2. 2
    a popular but erroneous etymology wordnet
  3. 3
    A modification of a word or its spelling resulting from a misunderstanding of its etymology, as with island, belfry, and hangnail. countable, uncountable

    "SURCEASE owes its form and meaning to a remarkable folk-etymology, as has been pointed out by Prof. Skeat:—"It is obvious, from the usual spelling, that this word is popularly supposed to be allied with cease, with which it has no etymological connexion.""

Etymology

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).

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