English from the 1880s (Abram Smythe Palmer, 1882), acalque ofGermanVolksetymologie (1820s, in 1821 asVolks-Etymologie in J. A. Schmeller'sDie Mundarten Bayerns grammatisch dargestellt).
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folketymology (countable anduncountable,pluralfolk etymologies)
- Apopularexplanation for theorigin of a term which has beenrejected asfalse byexpertetymologists.
- Synonyms:etymythology,fakeetymology,falseetymology,pseudoetymology,paraetymology,paretymology
Many Englishfolk etymologies involve backronyms.
1986, Robert Richardson,Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, Berkeley: University of California Press,→ISBN, page237:He even sharked up a false or"folk" etymology in whichsaunter is made to derive fromsainte terre, making the saunterer a crusader.
- Amodification of aword or itsspellingresulting from amisunderstanding of itsetymology, as withisland,belfry, andhangnail.
- Synonym:popular etymology
1882, Abram Smythe Palmer,Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions, London: George Bell,→OCLC, page654:SURCEASE owes its form and meaning to a remarkablefolk-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 withcease, with which it has no etymological connexion."
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, page296:Thushamburger (whose true etymology is 'city of Hamburg' +er 'someone from') has been reanalyzed asham +burger 'burger made with ham.' [...] Subsequently, on the analogy of thisfolk etymology, new forms such ascheeseburger,chiliburger, and plainburger have been created.
false etymology
- Albanian:etimologji popullore f
- Arabic:please add this translation if you can
- Armenian:ժողովրդական ստուգաբանություն (hy)(žoġovrdakan stugabanutʻyun)
- Breton:etimologiezh-pobl f
- Catalan:etimologia popular f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:俗詞源學 /俗词源学(súcíyuánxué),望文生義 /望文生义 (zh)(wàngwénshēngyì),俗詞源 /俗词源(súcíyuán)
- Czech:lidová etymologie f,bakalářská etymologie f
- Danish:folkeetymologi c
- Dutch:volksetymologie (nl) f
- Esperanto:popola etimologio,paretologio
- Finnish:kansanetymologia (fi)
- French:étymologie populaire (fr) f
- Galician:etimoloxía popular f
- Georgian:ხალხური ეტიმოლოგია(xalxuri eṭimologia)
- German:Volksetymologie (de) f
- Greek:παρετυμολογία (el) f(paretymología)
- Hungarian:népi etimológia
- Indonesian:etimologi rakyat (id),etimologi populer
- Italian:falsa etimologia f,pseudoetimologia (it) f,paretimologia (it) f
- Japanese:民間語源(みんかんごげん, minkan gogen)
- Korean:민간어원(民間語源)(min'ganeowon)
- Malay:etimologi rakyat
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål:folkeetymologi m
- Nynorsk:folkeetymologi m
- Polish:etymologia ludowa (pl) f,etymologia popularna f,etymologia potoczna f,pseudoetymologia f
- Portuguese:etimologia popular (pt) f,pseudoetimologia (pt) f
- Romanian:etimologie populară (ro) f
- Russian:наро́дная этимоло́гия (ru) f(naródnaja etimológija)
- Serbo-Croatian:pučka etimologija f
- Sicilian:etimuluggìa fausa f,paretimuluggìa
- Slovak:ľudová etymológia f
- Spanish:etimología popular f,paretología f,paretimología f,etimología sacha m,etimología folklórica f
- Swedish:folketymologi (sv) c
- Tagalog:palamuhatang-bayan
- Vietnamese:từ nguyên dân gian
- Welsh:camdarddiad poblogaidd m
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