folk etymology

== English == === 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). === Pronunciation === === Noun === folk etymology (countable and uncountable, plural folk etymologies) A popular explanation for the origin of a term which has been rejected as false by expert etymologists. Synonyms: etymythology, fake etymology, false etymology, pseudoetymology, paraetymology, paretymology A modification of a word or its spelling resulting from a misunderstanding of its etymology, as with island, belfry, and hangnail. Synonym: popular etymology ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ====