Ajay Kumar at 20:37, 29 August 2023

2023-08-29T20:37:32Z

New page

{{Short description|Replacement of an unfamiliar linguistic form by a more familiar one}}
{{About|a technical term in linguistics|incorrect popular etymologies|false etymology}}

'''Folk etymology''' (also known as  '''popular etymology''', '''analogical reformation''', '''reanalysis''', '''morphological reanalysis''' or '''etymological reinterpretation''')<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Cienkowski|first=Witold|date=January 1969|title=The initial stimuli in the processes of etymological reinterpretation(so‐called folk etymology)|journal=Scando-Slavica|volume=15|issue=1|pages=237–245|doi=10.1080/00806766908600524|issn=0080-6765}}</ref> is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one.<ref>{{Cite OED1 |folk-etymology}}</ref><ref name="Sihler2000">{{cite book|last=Sihler|first=Andrew|title=Language History: An introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BXlAYlCSoZQC|year=2000|publisher=John Benjamins|isbn=90-272-8546-2}}</ref><ref name="Trask2000">{{cite book|last=Trask|first=Robert Lawrence|author-link=Larry Trask|title=The Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EHeGzQ8wuLQC|year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-57958-218-0}}</ref> The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or [[morpheme]]s.

The term ''folk etymology'' is a [[loan translation]] from [[German language|German]] '''''Volksetymologie''''', coined by [[Ernst Förstemann]] in 1852.<ref name="Forstemann">{{cite book|last=Förstemann|first=Ernst|editor=Adalbert Kuhn|title=Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete des Deutschen, Griechischen und Lateinischen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kMNAAAAYAAJ|year=1852|publisher=F. Dümmler.|chapter=Ueber Deutsche volksetymologie}}</ref> Folk etymology is a [[Productivity (linguistics)|productive]] process in [[historical linguistics]], [[language change]], and [[social relation|social interaction]].<ref>See, e.g.[http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/ENGINEERING.pdf ''''Etymythological''' Othering' and the Power of 'Lexical Engineering' in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-Philo(sopho)logical Perspective], by [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]] in ''Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion'' (2006), ed. by Tope Omoniyi & [[Joshua A. Fishman]], Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 237–258.</ref> Reanalysis of a word's history or original form can affect its spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. This is frequently seen in relation to [[loanword]]s or words that have become archaic or obsolete.

Examples of words created or changed through folk etymology include the English dialectal form [[wikt:sparrowgrass|''sparrowgrass'']], originally from Greek {{lang|el|ἀσπάραγος}} ("[[asparagus]]") remade by analogy to the more familiar words ''sparrow'' and ''grass''.<ref name="Anttila1989">{{cite book|last=Anttila|first=Raimo|title=Historical and Comparative Linguistics|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalcompar00antt|url-access=registration|year=1989|publisher=John Benjamins|isbn=90-272-3556-2}}</ref> When the alteration of an unfamiliar word is limited to a single person, it is known as an [[eggcorn]].

== Productive force ==
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 change|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.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Etymology|volume=9|pages=864–865}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

== Related phenomena ==
{{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 [[morpheme]]s. For example, the [[Old French]] word ''orenge'' ("orange tree") comes from [[Arabic]] {{lang|ar|rtl=yes|النرنج }} ''an nāranj'' ("the orange tree"), with the initial ''n'' of ''nāranj'' understood as part of the [[Article (grammar)|article]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | year = 2013 | title = orange ''n''.<sup>1</sup> and ''adj''.<sup>1</sup> | encyclopedia = Oxford English Dictionary online | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | url =http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/132163 |access-date=2013-09-30}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Rebracketing in the opposite direction saw the Middle English ''a napron'' become ''an apron''.

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

== Examples in English ==
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.

=== Loanwords ===
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, ''[[Wikt:andiron|andiron]]'' borrowed from Old French was variously spelled ''aundyre'' or ''aundiren'' in Middle English, but was altered by association with ''iron''.<ref>{{cite OED1|andiron, n.|year=1884}}</ref> Other Old French loans altered in a similar manner include ''[[belfry (architecture)|belfry]]'' (from ''berfrey'') by association with ''bell'', ''female'' (from ''femelle'') by ''male'', and ''penthouse'' (from ''apentis'') by ''house''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The variant spelling of ''licorice'' as ''[[wikt:liquorice|liquorice]]'' comes from the supposition that it has something to do with liquid.<ref>{{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 ''liquiritia'' was in part influenced by Latin ''liquēre'' 'to flow', in reference to the process of treating the root to obtain its extract.}}</ref> Anglo-Norman ''licoris'' (influenced by ''licor'' "liquor") and [[Late Latin]] ''liquirītia'' were respelled for similar reasons, though the ultimate origin of all three is Greek ''{{lang|el|γλυκύρριζα}}'' (glycyrrhiza) "sweet root".<ref>{{Cite OED1|liquorice licorice, n.|year=1903}}</ref>

Reanalysis of loan words can affect their spelling, pronunciation, or meaning. The word ''cockroach'', for example, was borrowed from Spanish ''cucaracha'' but was assimilated to the existing English words ''cock'' and ''[[Common Roach|roach]]''.<ref>{{cite OED1|cockroach, n.|year=1891}}</ref> The phrase ''[[forlorn hope]]'' originally meant "storming party, body of skirmishers"<ref name="Brown">Brown, Lesley (ed.). 2002. ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. 1, A–M. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 1600.</ref> from Dutch ''verloren hoop'' "lost troop". But confusion with English ''hope'' has given the term an additional meaning of "hopeless venture".<ref>{{cite OED1|forlorn hope, n.|year=1897}}</ref>

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 ''[[sorbus]]''. The plants were called ''syrfe'' in Old English, which eventually became ''service''.<ref>{{cite OED1|serve, n1|year=1912}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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''.<ref>{{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]}}</ref> 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",<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

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

Some [[compound word]]s from [[Old English]] were reanalyzed in Middle or Modern English when one of the constituent words fell out of use. Examples include ''[[wikt:bridegroom|bridegroom]]'' from Old English ''[[wikt:brydguma|brydguma]]'' "bride-man". The word ''[[wikt:gome|gome]]'' "man" from Old English ''[[wikt:guma|guma]]'' fell out of use during the sixteenth century and the compound was eventually reanalyzed with the Modern English word ''[[wikt:groom|groom]]'' "male servant".<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Groom}}</ref> A similar reanalysis caused ''[[wikt:sandblind|sandblind]]'', from Old English ''sāmblind'' "half-blind" with a once-common prefix ''sām-'' "semi-", to be respelled as though it is related to ''sand''. The word ''island'' derives from Old English ''igland''. The modern spelling with the letter ''s'' is the result of comparison with the synonym ''[[wikt:isle|isle]]'' from Old French and ultimately as a [[Latinism|Latinist]] borrowing of ''insula'', though the Old French and Old English words are not historically related.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wedgwood|first=Hensleigh|title=A Dictionary of English Etymology: E–P|year=1862|publisher=Trübner|page=273}}</ref> In a similar way, the spelling of ''[[wikt:wormwood|wormwood]]'' was likely affected by comparison with ''wood''.<ref>{{OEtymD|wormwood|accessdate=2017-01-05}}</ref><ref name="Smythe Palmer">{{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}}</ref>{{rp|449}}

The phrase ''[[wikt:curry favor|curry favour]]'', meaning to flatter, comes from Middle English ''curry favel'', "[[horse grooming|groom]] a [[chestnut horse]]". This was an [[allusion]] to a fourteenth-century French morality poem, ''[[Roman de Fauvel]]'', about a chestnut-colored horse who corrupts men through duplicity. The phrase was reanalyzed in early Modern English by comparison to ''favour'' as early as 1510.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

Words need not completely disappear before their compounds are reanalyzed. The word ''[[wikt:shamefaced|shamefaced]]'' was originally ''[[wikt:shamefast|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 ''[[wikt:play fast and loose|play fast and loose]]''.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} The songbird ''[[wheatear]]'' or ''white-ear'' is a back-formation from Middle English ''whit-ers'' 'white arse', referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Although both ''white'' and ''arse'' are common in Modern English, the folk etymology may be [[euphemism]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Wheatear |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wheatear |encyclopedia=Merriam Webster Online |access-date=13 May 2010}}</ref>

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

== Other languages ==

Several words in [[Medieval Latin]] were subject to folk etymology. For example, the word ''widerdonum'' meaning 'reward' was borrowed from [[Old High German]] ''widarlōn'' "repayment of a loan". The ''l{{nbsp}}→{{nbsp}}d'' alteration is due to confusion with Latin ''donum'' 'gift'.<ref>{{Cite OED1 |guerdon|year=1900}}</ref><ref name="Smythe Palmer" />{{rp|157}} Similarly, the word ''baceler'' or ''bacheler'' (related to modern English [[Bachelor#Etymology and historical meanings|''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 ''baccalaureus'', probably reflecting a false derivation from ''bacca laurea'' 'laurel berry', alluding to the possible laurel crown of a poet or conqueror.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name="Smythe Palmer" />{{rp|17–18}}

In the fourteenth or fifteenth century, French scholars began to spell the verb ''savoir'' ('to know') as ''sçavoir'' on the false belief it was derived from Latin ''scire'' 'to know'. In fact it comes from ''sapere'' 'to be wise'.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

The Italian word ''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''.<ref name="Smythe Palmer" />{{rp|486}}

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

''[[Names of Istanbul#Islambol|Islambol]]'', a folk etymology meaning 'Islam abounding', is one of the names of [[Istanbul]] used after the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] conquest of 1453.<ref>{{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}}</ref>

An example from [[Persian language|Persian]] is the word ''[[shatranj]]'' 'chess', which is derived from the [[Sanskrit]] [[chaturanga|''chatur-anga'']] ("four-army [game]"; 2nd century BCE), and after losing the ''u'' to [[Syncope (phonetics)|syncope]], became ''chatrang'' in [[Middle Persian]] (6th century CE). Today it is sometimes factorized as ''sad'' 'hundred' + ''ranj'' 'worry, mood', or 'a hundred worries'.<ref name="BurnellYule1996">{{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}}</ref>

In Turkey, the political [[Democrat Party (Turkey, current)|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 ''Demokrat'' as ''demir kırat'' ("iron white-horse").<ref>{{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}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{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:Category:Back-formations by language|Wiktionary list of back-formations]]
* [[Wiktionary:Category:Rebracketings by language|Wiktionary list of rebracketings]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{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]]
[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Linguistic error]]
[[Category:Semantic relations]]

Folk etymology - Revision history

Ajay Kumar at 20:37, 29 August 2023