False etymology
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A false etymology is any assumed or postulated etymology that is incorrect.
Folk etymology, in its basic sense, refers to popularly held (and often false) beliefs about the origins of specific words, especially where these originate in "common-sense" assumptions rather than serious research (compare folk science, folk psychology etc.). In historical linguistics, the term is most often used in a more technical sense, to refer to a change in the pronunciation, meaning, or spelling of a word.
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See also
- List of common false etymologies
- Backronym
- Back-formation
- Chinese translation of crisis
- Eggcorn
- Folk etymology
- Johannes Goropius Becanus
- Medieval etymology
- Okay
- Phono-semantic matching
- Pseudoscientific language comparison
- Slang dictionary
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "False etymology" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
