folk etymology

The technical term "folk etymology" refers to a change in the form of a word caused by erroneous popular suppositions about its etymology. Until the academic development of comparative linguistics and description of laws underlying sound changes, the derivation of a word was mostly guess-work. Speculation about the original form of words in turn feeds back into the development of the word and thus becomes a part of a new etymology.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Etymology|volume=9|pages=864–865}}

Believing a word to have a certain origin, people begin to pronounce, spell, or otherwise use the word in a manner appropriate to that perceived origin. This popular etymologizing has had a powerful influence on the forms which words take. Examples in English include crayfish or crawfish, which are not historically related to fish but come from Middle English crevis, cognate with French écrevisse. Likewise chaise lounge, from the original French chaise longue ("long chair"), has come to be associated with the word lounge.{{cite book|last1=Pyles |first1=Thomas |last2=Algeo |first2=John |title=The Origins and Development of the English Language |edition=4th |year=1993 |location=New York |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|isbn=0030970547}}

{{further|Rebracketing|Back-formation}}

Other types of language change caused by reanalysis of the structure of a word include rebracketing and back-formation.

In rebracketing, users of the language change, misinterpret, or reinterpret the location of a boundary between words or morphemes. For example, the Old French word {{lang|fro|orenge}} {{gloss|orange tree}} comes from Arabic {{lang|ar|rtl=yes|النَّرَنْج}} {{transl|ar|Wehr|an-naranj}} {{gloss|the orange tree}}, with the initial {{angbr|n}} of {{transl|ar|naranj}} understood as part of the article.{{cite dictionary | year = 2013 | title = orange n.¹ and adj.¹ | dictionary= Oxford English Dictionary online | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | url =http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/132163 |access-date=2013-09-30 |url-access=subscription |doi=10.1093/OED/1138553349}} Rebracketing in the opposite direction saw the Middle English {{lang|enm|a napron}} become an apron.{{cite dictionary |dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary |entry=apron, n. |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=March 2024 |doi=10.1093/OED/6544240544 |entry-url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/apron_n?tab=etymology#48918 |entry-url-access=subscription}}

In back-formation, a new word is created by removing elements from an existing word that are interpreted as affixes. For example, Italian {{lang|it|pronuncia}} {{gloss|pronunciation, accent}} is derived from the verb {{lang|it|pronunciare}} {{gloss|to pronounce, to utter}} and English edit derives from editor.{{cite book|last=Crystal|first=David|title=Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics|year=2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-5675-5}} Some cases of back-formation are based on folk etymology.

In linguistic change caused by folk etymology, the form of a word changes so that it better matches its popular rationalisation. Typically this happens either to unanalysable foreign words or to compounds where the word underlying one part of the compound becomes obsolete.

There are many examples of words borrowed from foreign languages, and subsequently changed by folk etymology.

The spelling of many borrowed words reflects folk etymology. For example, andiron borrowed from Old French was variously spelled {{lang|enm|aundyre}} or {{lang|enm|aundiren}} in Middle English, but was altered by association with iron.{{cite OED1|andiron, n.|year=1884}} Other Old French loans altered in a similar manner include belfry (from {{lang|fro|berfrey}}) by association with bell, female (from {{lang|fro|femelle}}) by male, and penthouse (from {{lang|fro|apentis}}) by house.{{Cite web |title=penthouse {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning of penthouse by etymonline |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/penthouse |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=www.etymonline.com |language=en}} The variant spelling of licorice as liquorice comes from the supposition that it has something to do with liquid.{{cite book |title=The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology |last=Barnhart |first=Robert K. |year=1988 |publisher=H.W. Wilson |isbn=978-0-8242-0745-8|page=593|quote=The development of Late Latin {{lang|la|liquiritia}} was in part influenced by Latin {{lang|la|liquēre}} {{gloss|to flow}}, in reference to the process of treating the root to obtain its extract.}} Anglo-Norman {{lang|xno|licoris}} (influenced by {{lang|xno|licor}} {{gloss|liquor}}) and Late Latin {{lang|la|liquirītia}} were respelled for similar reasons, though the ultimate origin of all three is Ancient Greek {{lang|grc|γλυκύρριζα}} {{transl|grc|glucúrrhiza}} {{gloss|sweet root}}.{{Cite OED1|liquorice licorice, n.|year=1903}}

Reanalysis of loan words can affect their spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. The word cockroach, for example, was borrowed from Spanish {{lang|es|cucaracha}} but was assimilated to the existing English words cock and roach.{{cite OED1|cockroach, n.|year=1891}} The phrase forlorn hope originally meant "storming party, body of skirmishers"{{cite dictionary |editor-last=Brown |editor-first=Lesley |year=2002 |title=Shorter Oxford English Dictionary |volume=1: A–M |edition=5th |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=1600}} from Dutch {{lang|nl|verloren hoop}} "lost troop". But confusion with English hope has given the term an additional meaning of "hopeless venture".{{cite OED1|forlorn hope, n.|year=1897}}

Sometimes imaginative stories are created to account for the link between a borrowed word and its popularly assumed sources. The names of the serviceberry, service tree, and related plants, for instance, come from the Latin name {{lang|la|sorbus}}. The plants were called {{lang|ang|syrfe}} in Old English, which eventually became service.{{cite OED1|serve, n1|year=1912}} Fanciful stories suggest that the name comes from the fact that the trees bloom in spring, a time when circuit-riding preachers resume church services or when funeral services are carried out for people who died during the winter.{{cite book|last=Small|first=Ernest|title=North American Cornucopia: Top 100 Indigenous Food Plants|year=2013|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-1-4665-8594-2|page=597}}

A seemingly plausible but no less speculative etymology accounts for the form of Welsh rarebit, a dish made of cheese and toasted bread. The earliest known reference to the dish in 1725 called it Welsh rabbit.{{cite book|last=Byrom|first=John|title=The Private Journal and Literary Remains of John Byrom|url=https://archive.org/details/privatejournalli1132manc|year=1854|publisher=Chetham society|page=[https://archive.org/details/privatejournalli1132manc/page/108 108]}} The origin of that name is unknown, but presumably humorous, since the dish contains no rabbit. In 1785 Francis Grose suggested in A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue that the dish is "a Welch rare bit",{{cite book|last=Grose|first=Francis|title=A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue|year=1785|publisher=S. Hooper|page=133|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyVKAAAAMAAJ&pg=133}} though the word rarebit was not common prior to Grose's dictionary. Both versions of the name are in current use; individuals sometimes express strong opinions concerning which version is correct.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Welsh rabbit, Welsh rarebit|encyclopedia=Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage|page=952|year=1994|isbn=978-0-87779-132-4}}

When a word or other form becomes obsolete, words or phrases containing the obsolete portion may be reanalyzed and changed.

Some compound words from Old English were reanalyzed in Middle or Modern English when one of the constituent words fell out of use. Examples include bridegroom from Old English {{lang|ang|brydguma}} {{gloss|bride-man}}. The word gome {{gloss|man}} from Old English {{lang|ang|guma}} fell out of use during the sixteenth century and the compound was eventually reanalyzed with the Modern English word groom {{gloss|male servant}}.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Groom}} A similar reanalysis caused sandblind, from Old English {{lang|ang|sāmblind}} {{gloss|half-blind}} with a once-common prefix {{lang|ang|sām-}} {{gloss|semi-}}, to be respelled as though it is related to sand. The word island derives from Old English {{lang|ang|igland}}. The modern spelling with the letter s is the result of comparison with the synonym isle from Old French and ultimately as a Latinist borrowing of {{lang|la|insula}}, though the Old French and Old English words are not historically related.{{cite dictionary|last=Wedgwood|first=Hensleigh|title=A Dictionary of English Etymology: E–P|year=1862|publisher=Trübner|page=273}} In a similar way, the spelling of wormwood was likely affected by comparison with wood.{{OEtymD|wormwood|access-date=2017-01-05}}{{cite book|last=Smythe Palmer|first=Abram|title=Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, by False Derivation Or Mistaken Analogy|year=1882|publisher=Johnson Reprint}}{{rp|449}}

The phrase curry favour, meaning to flatter, comes from Middle English {{lang|enm|curry favel}} {{gloss|groom a chestnut horse}}. This was an allusion to a fourteenth-century French morality poem, Roman de Fauvel, about a chestnut-coloured horse who corrupts men through duplicity. The phrase was reanalyzed in early Modern English by comparison to favour as early as 1510.{{cite web|last=Martin|first=Gary|year=2017|title=The meaning and origin of the expression: 'Curry favour'|work=Phrase Finder|url=http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/curry-favour.html}}

Words need not completely disappear before their compounds are reanalyzed. The word shamefaced was originally shamefast. The original meaning of fast 'fixed in place' still exists, as in the compounded words steadfast and colorfast, but by itself mainly in frozen expressions such as stuck fast, hold fast, and play fast and loose.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The songbird wheatear or white-ear is a back-formation from Middle English {{lang|enm|whit-ers}} {{gloss|white arse}}, referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.{{cite encyclopedia |title=White-ear|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white%E2%80%93ear |encyclopedia=Merriam Webster Online|access-date=5 January 2017}} Although both white and arse are common in Modern English, the folk etymology may be euphemism.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Wheatear |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wheatear |encyclopedia=Merriam Webster Online |access-date=13 May 2010}}

Reanalysis of archaic or obsolete forms can lead to changes in meaning as well. The original meaning of hangnail referred to a corn on the foot.{{cite encyclopedia |title=hangnail|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hangnail |encyclopedia=Merriam Webster Online|access-date=5 January 2017}} The word comes from Old English {{lang|ang|ang-}} + {{lang|ang|nægel}} {{gloss|anguished nail, compressed spike}}, but the spelling and pronunciation were affected by folk etymology in the seventeenth century or earlier.{{OEtymD|hangnail|access-date=2017-01-05}} Thereafter, the word came to be used for a tag of skin or torn cuticle near a fingernail or toenail.

Several words in Medieval Latin were subject to folk etymology. For example, the word {{lang|la|widerdonum}} meaning 'reward' was borrowed from Old High German {{lang|goh|widarlōn}} {{gloss|repayment of a loan}}. The l{{nbsp}}→{{nbsp}}d alteration is due to confusion with Latin {{lang|la|donum}} {{gloss|gift}}.{{Cite OED1 |guerdon|year=1900}}{{rp|157}} Similarly, the word {{lang|la|baceler}} or {{lang|la|bacheler}} (related to modern English bachelor) referred to a junior knight. It is attested from the eleventh century, though its ultimate origin is uncertain. By the late Middle Ages its meaning was extended to the holder of a university degree inferior to master or doctor. This was later re-spelled {{lang|la|baccalaureus}}, probably reflecting a false derivation from {{lang|la|bacca laurea}} {{gloss|laurel berry}}, alluding to the possible laurel crown of a poet or conqueror.{{cite book|last=Brachet|first=Auguste|title=An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language: Crowned by the French Academy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TvENAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA354|year=1882|publisher=Clarendon Press|pages=46–47}}{{rp|17–18}}

In the fourteenth or fifteenth century, French scholars began to spell the verb {{lang|fr|savoir}} {{gloss|to know}} as {{lang|fr|sçavoir}} on the false belief it was derived from Latin {{lang|la|scire}} {{gloss|to know}}. In fact it comes from {{lang|la|sapere}} {{gloss|to be wise}}.{{cite book|last=Singleton|first=David|title=Language and the Lexicon: An Introduction|year=2016|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-83594-3|page=141}}

The Italian word {{lang|it|liocorno}}, meaning 'unicorn' derives from 13th-century lunicorno (lo 'the' + unicorno 'unicorn'). Folk etymology based on lione 'lion' altered the spelling and pronunciation. Dialectal liofante 'elephant' was likewise altered from elefante by association with lione.{{rp|486}}

The Dutch word for 'hammock' is {{lang|nl|hangmat}}. It was borrowed from Spanish {{lang|es|hamaca}} (ultimately from Arawak {{lang|arw|amàca}}) and altered by comparison with {{lang|nl|hangen}} and {{lang|nl|mat}} {{gloss|hanging mat}}. German {{lang|de|Hängematte}} shares this folk etymology.{{cite web|title=Hängematte|work=Wörterbuch Deutsch|url=http://en.worterbuchdeutsch.com/de/hangematte |date=October 2016|access-date=2017-01-31}}

Islambol, a folk etymology meaning 'Islam abounding', is one of the names of Istanbul used after the Ottoman conquest of 1453.{{cite book|author=Necdet Sakaoğlu|title=Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t51PAQAAMAAJ|year=1993|publisher=Kültür Bakanlığı|language=tr|isbn=978-975-7306-04-7|pages=253–255|chapter=İstanbul'un adları}}

An example from Persian is the word {{lang|fa|شطرنج}} {{transl|fa|shatranj}} 'chess', which is derived from the Sanskrit {{lang|sa|चतुरङ्ग}} {{transl|sa|chatur-anga}} ("four-army [game]"; 2nd century BCE), and after losing the u to syncope, became {{lang|pal-Arab|چترنگ}} {{transl|pal|chatrang}} in Middle Persian (6th century CE). Today it is sometimes factorized as {{transl|fa|sad}} {{gloss|hundred}} + {{transl|fa|ranj}} {{gloss|worry, mood}}, or {{gloss|a hundred worries}}.{{cite book|author1=A. C. Burnell|author2=Henry Yule|title=Hobson-Jobson: Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words And Phrases|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mnl0DwAAQBAJ&q=Shatranj&pg=PA779|date=11 January 1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-136-60331-0|page=779}}

Some Indonesian feminists discourage usage of the term wanita ('woman') and replacing it with perempuan, since wanita itself has misogynistic roots. First, in Javanese, wanita is a portmanteau of wani ditata (dare to be controlled), also, wanita is taken from Sanskrit {{lang|sa|वनिता}} {{transl|sa|vanitā}} (someone desired by men).{{cite web |last1=Parhani |first1=Siti |title=Antara Wanita dan Perempuan, Apa Bedanya? |url=https://magdalene.co/story/antara-wanita-dan-perempuan-apa-bedanya/ |website=Magdalene |access-date=2 May 2024 |date=6 January 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Swaragita |first1=Gisela |title=Defining 'woman': Dictionary entry fans flames of sexist furor in Indonesia - Politics |url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2021/02/11/indonesias-language-agency-fans-flames-of-sexist-furor-over-perempuan-dictionary-entry.html |website=The Jakarta Post |access-date=2 May 2024 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Rhani |first1=Gloria Kristy |title=Gambaran Perempuan Karir Dalam Program "News For Women" SBO TV |journal=Commonline UNAIR |date=1 April 2014 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=137–151 |url=https://journal.unair.ac.id/filerPDF/comm0b09f80fe1full.pdf |access-date=2 May 2024}}

In Turkey, the political Democrat Party changed its logo in 2007 to a white horse in front of a red background because many voters folk-etymologized its Turkish name {{lang|tr|Demokrat}} as {{lang|tr|demir kırat}} {{gloss|iron white-horse}}.{{cite book|first=Sam|last=Kaplan|year=2006|title=The Pedagogical State|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=0-8047-5433-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lHPuoNJqaUAC&q=demir&pg=PA172|page=172}}

{{div col|colwidth=25em}}

• Backronym
• Chinese word for "crisis"
• Eggcorn
• Etymological fallacy
• Expressive loan
• False etymology
• False friend
• Folk linguistics
• Hobson-Jobson
• Hypercorrection
• Hyperforeignism
• Johannes Goropius Becanus
• Nirukta
• Okay
• Phono-semantic matching
• Pseudoscientific language comparison
• Semantic change
• Slang dictionary
• Wiktionary list of back-formations
• Wiktionary list of rebracketings

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |author-link=Jan Harold Brunvand |last=Brunvand |first=Jan Harold |title=Encyclopedia of Urban Legends, Volume 1 |date=2012 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |isbn=978-1-59-884720-8 |pages=242–44 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xOb-19lXx8C&q=%22folk+etymologies%22}}
• Anatoly Liberman (2005). Word Origins ... and How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-516147-2}}.
• Adrian Room (1986). Dictionary of True Etymologies. Routledge & Kegan Paul. {{ISBN|0-7102-0340-3}}.
• David Wilton (2004). Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-517284-1}}.

{{Folklore genres}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:False Etymology}}

Category:Etymology

Category:Comparative linguistics

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Category:Linguistic error

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