folk etymology

Definition

A popular explanation for the origin of a term which has been rejected as false by expert etymologists.

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).

Example Sentences

• "Many English folk etymologies involve backronyms."
• "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."
• "He even sharked up a false or "folk" etymology in which saunter is made to derive from sainte terre, making the saunterer a crusader."

Related Words