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False etymology

Popular, but false belief about word origins

Popular, but false belief about word origins

Note

false theories of word origins

A false etymology, also known as paretymology is an incorrect theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural or linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or popular etymology). (Folk etymology may also refer to the process by which a word or phrase is changed because of a popular false etymology.)

Such etymologies often have the feel of urban legends and can be more colorful and fanciful than the typical etymologies found in dictionaries, often involving stories of unusual practices in particular subcultures (e.g. Oxford students from non-noble families being supposedly forced to write sine nobilitate by their name, soon abbreviated to s.nob., hence the word snob).

Definitions

To disambiguate the usage of the term "folk/popular etymology", linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann proposes a clear-cut distinction between the derivational-only popular etymology (DOPE) and the generative popular etymology (GPE): the DOPE refers to a popular false etymology involving no neologization, and the GPE refers to neologization generated by a popular false etymology.

Source and influence

Erroneous etymologies can exist for many reasons. Some are reasonable interpretations of the evidence that happen to be false. For a given word there may often have been many serious attempts by scholars to propose etymologies based on the best information available at the time, and these can be later modified or rejected as linguistic scholarship advances. The results of medieval etymology, for example, were plausible given the insights available at the time, but have often been rejected by modern linguists. The etymologies of humanist scholars in the early modern period began to produce more reliable results, but many of their hypotheses have also been superseded.

Other false etymologies are the result of specious and untrustworthy claims made by individuals, such as the unfounded claims made by Daniel Cassidy that hundreds of common English words such as baloney, grumble, and bunkum derive from the Irish language.

In the United States, some of these scandalous legends have had to do with racism and slavery; common words such as picnic, buck, and crowbar have been alleged to stem from derogatory terms or racist practices.

References

References

  1. (2023). "Place Names: Approaches and Perspectives in Toponymy and Toponomastics". Cambridge University Press.
  2. (2003-01-01). "The inevitability of folk etymology: a case of collective reality and invisible hands". Journal of Pragmatics.
  3. "nouns – Etymology of "snob"". English Language & Usage Stack Exchange.
  4. (2013-08-21). "What is the origin of the word 'snob'?". Oxford Dictionaries Online.
  5. Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. (2003). "Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew". [[Palgrave Macmillan]].
  6. Zwicky, Arnold. (2007-11-09). "Language Log: Gullibility in high places". Itre.cis.upenn.edu.
  7. Liberman, Mark. (2006-07-06). "Language Log: The bunkum of 'The Bunkum of Bunkum'?". Itre.cis.upenn.edu.
  8. Mikkelson, David. (21 January 2017). "Picnic Pique".
  9. (22 December 2013). "Etymology on the phrase 'passing the buck'".
  10. (14 December 2008). "Etymology of Crowbar".
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etymology error folklore urban-legends misconceptions pseudolinguistics semantic-relations
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