Etymythology

The basic element which transforms names and placenames into narratives or narrative details is the pun. I call this process etymythology. and I show how James Joyce's knowledge of Irish onomastic and toponomastic tales, and his interest in the process which created them, was bolstered by his early study of the developing science of etymology, […] to the point where etymythology as poetics became one of Joyce's own methods of composition, an element of his own poetics.

Source: wiktionary

There are two specific kinds of etymythology that continually recur. One argues that a given word has been created as an acronym, from the initial letters of a phrase. This is a common suggestion, for words as widely differentiated as cop, ‘Constable On Patrol’, FUCK, supposedly ‘Fornication Under Consent of the King’, POSH, ‘Port Out, Starboard Home’ (from sailing-ship days), or TIP, money given to a waiter ‘To Insure Promptness’.

Source: wiktionary

Many Israelis are certain that he is ‘Dr Horse’ since Israeli סוּס sus means ‘horse’. I have heard an etymythology that this arises from the prevalence of animals in Dr Seuss’s stories. This ‘misunderstanding’ might correspond to Haugen’s general claim with regard to borrowing, that “every speaker attempts to reproduce previously learned linguistic patterns in an effort to cope with new linguistic situations’ (1950:212).

Source: wiktionary

The Internet is simply a far more efficient etymythology tool than its predecessors.

Source: wiktionary