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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

folk etymology en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /fəʊk ˌɛ.tɪˈmɒl.ə.dʒi/
  • (Southern-England) audio

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).

Meanings

  1. (countable, uncountable) A popular explanation for the origin of a term which has been rejected as false by expert etymologists.
    • The spelling in 'sovereign' was influenced by folk-etymology association with 'reign'.
    • It is not improbable that, in some locality where tram-roads were a novelty, their name may have been associated in folk-etymology or by pre-scientific etymologers with that of the engineer. 1926, James A.H. Murray, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, volume X, part I, page 248, column 1:
    • He even sharked up a false or "folk" etymology in which saunter is made to derive from sainte terre, making the saunterer a crusader. 1986, Robert Richardson, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, Berkeley: University of California Press, →ISBN, page 237:
    • Many English folk etymologies involve backronyms.
  2. (countable, uncountable) A modification of a word or its spelling resulting from a misunderstanding of its etymology, as with island, belfry, and hangnail.
    • 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." 1882, Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions, London: George Bell, →OCLC, page 654:
    • Thus hamburger (whose true etymology is 'city of Hamburg' + er 'someone from') has been reanalyzed as ham + burger 'burger made with ham.' [...] Subsequently, on the analogy of this folk etymology, new forms such as cheeseburger, chiliburger, and plain burger have been created. 2006, Shaligram Shukla, Jeff Connor-Linton, “Language change”, in Ralph Fasold, Jeff Connor-Linton, editors, An Introduction to Language and Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 296:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
folk etymologies Number=Plur lexicographic

Deriveds

folk-etymological · folk-etymologize · folk etymologist · folk-etymologically

Hypernyms

misetymology

Relateds

folk linguistics · goropism · surface etymology · eggcorn · misnomer · reanalysis · malapropism · mondegreen · Hobson-Jobson · rebracketing · catachresis · phono-semantic matching

Synonyms

etymythology · paretymology · paraetymology · popular etymology · pseudoetymology

Translations (60)

eo popola etimologio (false etymology) · es etimología sacha (false etymology) · tl palamuhatang-bayan (false etymology) · cmn 望文生義 /望文生义 (false etymology) · el παρετυμολογία (false etymology) · scn etimuluggìa fausa (false etymology) · nl volksetymologie (a modification of a word or its spelling) · hy ժողովրդական ստուգաբանություն (false etymology) · cy camdarddiad poblogaidd (false etymology) · cmn 俗詞源 /俗词源 (false etymology) · ca etimologia popular (false etymology) · sk ľudová etymológia (false etymology) · fi kansanetymologia (false etymology) · id etimologi populer (false etymology) · sq etimologji popullore (false etymology) · ms etimologi rakyat (false etymology) · ja 民間語源 (false etymology) · cs bakalářská etymologie (false etymology) · sh pučka etimologija (false etymology) · fr étymologie populaire (false etymology) · es reanálisis morfémico (a modification of a word or its spelling) · pl etymologia potoczna (a modification of a word or its spelling) · pl etymologia ludowa (a modification of a word or its spelling) · es etimología popular (false etymology) · ru наро́дная этимоло́гия (false etymology) · de Volksetymologie (false etymology) · it pseudoetimologia (false etymology) · it paretimologia (false etymology) · pl etymologia popularna (false etymology) · cs lidová etymologie (false etymology) · ko 민간어원 (false etymology) · pt pseudoetimologia (false etymology) · da folkeetymologi (false etymology) · ro etimologie populară (false etymology) · vi từ nguyên dân gian (false etymology) · sv folketymologi (false etymology) · gl etimoloxía popular (false etymology) · ka ხალხური ეტიმოლოგია (false etymology) · es paretología (false etymology) · cmn 俗詞源學 /俗词源学 (false etymology) · fi kansanetymologia (a modification of a word or its spelling) · hu népi etimológia (false etymology) · id etimologi rakyat (false etymology) · pl etymologia potoczna (false etymology) · es etimología folklórica (false etymology) · nb folkeetymologi (false etymology) · eo paretologio (false etymology) · pt etimologia popular (false etymology) · br etimologiezh-pobl (false etymology) · es paretimología (false etymology) · pl pseudoetymologia (false etymology) · it falsa etimologia (false etymology) · nl volksetymologie (false etymology) · hu népetimológia (a modification of a word or its spelling) · pl etymologia popularna (a modification of a word or its spelling) · nn folkeetymologi (false etymology) · pl pseudoetymologia (a modification of a word or its spelling) · sv folketymologi (a modification of a word or its spelling) · scn paretimuluggìa (false etymology) · pl etymologia ludowa (false etymology)