Jump to content

False etymology: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous edit
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
del empty section
 
(82 intermediate revisions by 58 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Popular, but false belief about word origins}}
A '''false etymology''' ('''pseudoetymology''', '''paraetymology''', or '''paretymology'''), sometimes called '''folk etymology''' – although this is also [[folk etymology|a technical term in linguistics]] – or '''popular etymology''', is a popularly held but false belief about the origins of specific words, often originating in ''common-sense'' assumptions.
{{About|false theories of word origins|word change through popular usage|folk etymology}}
A '''false etymology''' ('''fake etymology''' or '''pseudo-etymology''') is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a '''folk etymology''' (or '''popular etymology''').<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rundblad |first1=Gabriella |last2=Kronenfeld |first2=David B. |date=2003-01-01 |title=The inevitability of folk etymology: a case of collective reality and invisible hands |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216602000590 |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=119–138 |doi=10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00059-0 |issn=0378-2166}}</ref> Nevertheless, [[Folk etymology|folk/popular etymology]] may also refer to the process by which a word or phrase is changed because of a popular false etymology. To disambiguate the usage of the term "folk/popular etymology", [[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.<ref name="Zuckerman20032">{{cite book |last=Zuckermann |first=Ghil'ad |url=http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781403917232 |title=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-1403917232 |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann}}</ref>


Such [[etymology|etymologies]] often have the feel of [[urban legend]]s, and can be much more colorful 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 ''[[Wikt:snob|snob]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22147/etymology-of-snob |title=nouns – Etymology of "snob" – English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |publisher=English.stackexchange.com |date= |accessdate=2013-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-snob |title=What is the origin of the word 'snob'? – Oxford Dictionaries Online |publisher=Oxforddictionaries.com |date=2013-08-21 |accessdate=2013-08-26}}</ref> Many recent examples are "backronyms" ([[acronym]]s made up to explain a term), as in ''snob'', and ''posh'' for "port outward, starboard homeward"; many other sourced examples are listed in the article on [[backronym]]s.
Such [[etymology|etymologies]] often have the feel of [[urban legend]]s 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 ''[[Wikt:snob|snob]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22147/etymology-of-snob |title=nouns – Etymology of "snob" |publisher=English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |access-date=2013-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-snob |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230013936/http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-snob |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 30, 2011 |title=What is the origin of the word 'snob'? |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries Online |date=2013-08-21 |access-date=2013-08-26}}</ref>


==Source and influence of false etymologies==
==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 [[Humanism|humanist]] scholars in the early modern period began to produce more reliable results, but many of their hypotheses have also been superseded.
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 [[Humanism|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]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Zwicky |first=Arnold |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005098.html |title=Language Log: Gullibility in high places |publisher=Itre.cis.upenn.edu |date=2007-11-09 |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Liberman |first=Mark |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003326.html |title=Language Log: The bunkum of "The Bunkum of Bunkum"? |publisher=Itre.cis.upenn.edu |date=2006-07-06 |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref>
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 ''[[wikt:baloney|baloney]]'', ''[[wikt:grumble|grumble]]'', and ''[[wikt:bunkum|bunkum]]'' derive from the [[Irish language]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Zwicky |first=Arnold |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/005098.html |title=Language Log: Gullibility in high places |publisher=Itre.cis.upenn.edu |date=2007-11-09 |access-date=2015-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Liberman |first=Mark |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003326.html |title=Language Log: The bunkum of 'The Bunkum of Bunkum'? |publisher=Itre.cis.upenn.edu |date=2006-07-06 |access-date=2015-07-12}}</ref>


⚫
In the United States, some of these scandalous legends have had to do with [[racism]] and [[slavery]]; common words such as ''picnic'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.htm |title=Picnic Pique |website=Snopes.com |access-date=5 March 2018|date=21 January 2017|last= Mikkelson|first =David}}</ref> ''buck'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/buck.htm |title=Etymology on the phrase 'passing the buck' |website=Snopes.com |date=22 December 2013 |access-date=2015-07-12}}</ref> and ''crowbar''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/crowbar.asp |title=Etymology of Crowbar |website=Snopes.com |date=14 December 2008 |access-date=2015-07-12}}</ref> have been alleged to stem from derogatory terms or racist practices.
==Association with urban legends==
Some etymologies are part of [[urban legend]]s, and seem to respond to a general taste for the surprising, counterintuitive and even scandalous. One common example has to do with the phrase ''[[rule of thumb]]'', meaning "a rough guideline". An urban legend has it that the phrase refers to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb (though no such law ever existed).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-rul1.htm |title=World Wide Words: Rule of thumb |publisher=Quinion.com |date=1999-11-13 |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref>

⚫
In the [[United States]], some of these scandalous legends have had to do with [[racism]] and [[slavery]]; common words such as ''picnic'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/picnic.htm |title=Etymology on the word picnic |publisher=Snopes.com |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref> ''buck'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/buck.htm |title=Etymology on the phrase 'passing the buck' |publisher=Snopes.com |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref> and ''crowbar''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.snopes.com/language/offense/crowbar.asp |title=Etymology of Crowbar |publisher=Snopes.com |date= |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref> have been alleged to stem from derogatory terms or racist practices. The "discovery" of these alleged etymologies is often believed by those who circulate them to draw attention to racist attitudes embedded in ordinary discourse. On one occasion, the use of the word ''[[Controversies about the word "niggardly"|niggardly]]'' led to the resignation of a US public official because it sounded similar to the unrelated word ''[[nigger]]''.<ref>{{cite web|author= |url=http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mniggard.html |title=Is "niggardly" a racist word? |publisher=The Straight Dope |date=2000-01-03 |accessdate=2015-07-12}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
*[[List of common false etymologies]]
*[[List of common false etymologies of English words]]
⚫
*[[False cognate]] and [[false friends]]
⚫
*[[Backronym]]
*[[Back-formation]]
*[[Back-formation]]
⚫
*[[Backronym]]
*[[Bongo-Bongo (linguistics)]]
*[[Bongo-Bongo (linguistics)]]
*[[Chinese word for "crisis"]]
*[[Chinese word for "crisis"]]
*[[Daniel Cassidy]]
*[[Eggcorn]]
*[[Eggcorn]]
*[[Folk etymology]]
*[[Etymological fallacy]]
⚫
*[[False cognate]]
*[[Johannes Goropius Becanus]]
*[[Medieval etymology]]
*[[False friend]]
*[[Okay]]
*[[Just-so story]]
*[[Linguistic interference]]
*[[List of proposed etymologies of OK]]
*[[Phonestheme]]
*[[Phono-semantic matching]]
*[[Phono-semantic matching]]
*[[Pseudoscientific language comparison]]
*[[Pseudoscientific language comparison]]
*[[Slang dictionary]]
*[[Semantic change]]
* [[False friend]]
* [[Semantic change]]
* [[Etymological fallacy]]
{{div col end}}
{{div col end}}


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

==External links==
* Richard Lederer, [http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0203/lederer022003.asp ''Spook Etymology on the Internet'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080807180001/http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fallacy.html Popular Fallacies – the Nonsense Nine]


[[Category:Etymology]]
[[Category:Etymology]]
Line 42: Line 43:
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Urban legends]]
[[Category:Urban legends]]
[[Category:Pseudo-scholarship]]
[[Category:Misconceptions]]
[[Category:Pseudolinguistics]]
[[Category:Semantic relations]]


[[es:Etimología popular]]
[[it:Paretimologia#Paretimologia in senso lato]]
[[it:Paretimologia#Paretimologia in senso lato]]
[[pt:Etimologia popular]]
[[pt:Etimologia popular]]

Latest revision as of 14:59, 18 October 2024

This article is about false theories of word origins. For word change through popular usage, see folk etymology.

A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or popular etymology).[1] Nevertheless, folk/popular etymology may also refer to the process by which a word or phrase is changed because of a popular false etymology. To disambiguate the usage of the term "folk/popular etymology", 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.[2]

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).[3][4]

Source and influence

[edit]

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.[5][6]

In the United States, some of these scandalous legends have had to do with racism and slavery; common words such as picnic,[7] buck,[8] and crowbar[9] have been alleged to stem from derogatory terms or racist practices.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Rundblad, Gabriella; Kronenfeld, David B. (2003-01-01). "The inevitability of folk etymology: a case of collective reality and invisible hands". Journal of Pragmatics. 35 (1): 119–138. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00059-0. ISSN 0378-2166.
  2. ^ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403917232.
  3. ^ "nouns – Etymology of "snob"". English Language & Usage Stack Exchange. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
  4. ^ "What is the origin of the word 'snob'?". Oxford Dictionaries Online. 2013-08-21. Archived from the original on December 30, 2011. Retrieved 2013-08-26.
  5. ^ Zwicky, Arnold (2007-11-09). "Language Log: Gullibility in high places". Itre.cis.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  6. ^ Liberman, Mark (2006-07-06). "Language Log: The bunkum of 'The Bunkum of Bunkum'?". Itre.cis.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  7. ^ Mikkelson, David (21 January 2017). "Picnic Pique". Snopes.com. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  8. ^ "Etymology on the phrase 'passing the buck'". Snopes.com. 22 December 2013. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
  9. ^ "Etymology of Crowbar". Snopes.com. 14 December 2008. Retrieved 2015-07-12.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=False_etymology&oldid=1251866773"