False etymology
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A false etymology is an assumed or postulated etymology which is incorrect from the perspective of modern scholarly work in historical linguistics.
Erroneous etymologies can exist for many reasons. Some are simply outdated. There have been many serious attempts by scholars to propose an etymology based on the best information available at the time, which however are later modified or rejected as linguistic scholarship advances. Mediaeval etymology, for example, is a vast body of work by the best intellectuals of the period, which was plausible given the insights available at the time, but which has mostly been rejected by modern linguists. The etymologies of humanist scholars in the early modern period began to produce more reliable results, but their hypotheses too have frequently been superseded. Even today, knowledge in the field is advancing fast, so that many etymologies found even in recent editions of major dictionaries are now outdated.
Incorrect etymologies have sometimes been created for purposes of propaganda. The opponents of the mediaeval Dominicans joked that Dominicanes was derived from domini canes, “God’s dogs”. This was not an error; they knew they were playing word games. Another particularly ugly example was the derivation of Slav from slave, which may originally have been a scholarly error (it's in some reputable dictionaries) but was used by the Nazis to provide a pseudo-linguistic justification for their atrocities.
People sometimes create etymologies to make a political point. The feminist who “etymologised” history as his story and proposed herstory as an antidote was not serious about the linguistics of the matter, but she was entirely serious about the gender-political point (male domination of history), which she communicated all the more effectively because of her good-humoured etymological fake. The term womanipulate for manipulate as man-ipulate (actually Latin manipulare, “to handle”, from manus, “hand”) was created in the same way.
Some etymologies are part of urban legends, many of which allege a scandalous origin for a common and innocent word. One common example has to do with the phrase rule of thumb, meaning a rough measurement; the width of adult male thumb is roughly one inch. 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. [1] Interestingly enough, the phrase "rule of thumb" is known in Finland (which is a Metric country) as "nyrkkisääntö" (rule of fist); the width of adult male fist is roughly ten centimeters) - certain Feminists have interpreted a man has legally been allowed to beat his wife with his fists but not with a weapon.
In the United States, many of these scandalous legends have had to do with racism and slavery. Common words such as picnic [2], buck [3], and crowbar [4] 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 niggardly led to the resignation of a US public official because it sounded similar to the word nigger.
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Folk etymology
See main article: Folk etymology
“Folk etymology” or “popular etymology” is an established term for a false etymology which grows up anonymously in popular lore. A modern folk etymology may be thought of as a linguistic urban legend, but folk etymologies can be very old.
Folk etymology becomes interesting when it feeds back into the development of the word and thus becomes a part of the true etymology. Because a population wrongly believes a word to have a certain origin, they begin to pronounce or use the word in a manner appropriate to that perceived origin, in a kind of misplaced pedantry. Thus a new standard form of the word appears which has been influenced by the misconception. In such cases we often say that the form of the word has been “altered by folk etymology”. (Less commonly, but found in the etymological sections of the OED, one might read that the word was altered by pseudo-etymology, or false etymology.) It should be noted, however, that strictly the term “folk etymology” refers to the misconception which triggered the change, not to the process of change itself, which is best thought of as an example of linguistic analogy.
Examples
- F.U.C.K. (for fuck). There is an urban legend which states that the term "fuck" originated as an acronym, standing for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". According to this etymology, adulterers in medieval England would be charged with the crime of unlawful carnal knowledge. After a while the charge was shortened on the charge sheet to "F.U.C.K.", and so the term came to mean the act of adultery. There are a number of variations on this theme - the same acronym was posted on stocks where adulterers were publicly humiliated. Another variation suggests that F.U.C.K stands for "Fornication Under Consent of the King", supposedly posted on the doors of those permitted to reproduce at a time of medieval population control, or to indicate that a brothel had paid its tax and was licensed to operate. These etymologies are clearly false: acronyms were not widely used before the 20th century, and "fuck" derives from Old English.
- "Fuck you". There is also the one about the archers who had their middle fingers removed in medieval times to keep them from properly aiming their arrows; however; they would defiantly raise their mangled hands to the enemy and claim they could still "pluck yew". English longbow archers caught by the enemy at Agincourt would supposedly have their bow fingers amputated, since at that time the longbow was a devastating weapon, giving great advantage to the English. Unaffected archers would taunt the enemy by raising two fingers to show they were still intact - the "V-sign" survives to this day as an insulting gesture. This is, however, an untrue story.
- Pommy, an Australian slang term for a person of British descent or origin. The true origins of the term remain obscure, but a common legend states that the term arises from the acronym P.O.M.E, for "Prisoner of Mother England" (sometimes P.O.H.M, "Prisoners Of Her Majesty"), which term was supposedly used on documentation accompanying English convicts transported to Australia.
- Canada. There is a story that it was actually the Spanish who first discovered Canada, but in winter. Upon fixing their telescope on the frozen land, and being asked what he saw, one explorer, not wanting to make landfall replied 'Ca nada'.
- S.H.I.T. (for shit). Another legend suggests that the origin of the term "shit" traces back to the farming industry. Dried manure was transported via ship. Often times it would be shipped in the lowest holds of the ship, the remoteness of these sections was ideal for concealing the smell. The wooden boats were prone to minor leakage. The manure would become damp and begin expelling methane. On occasion this methane buildup was set into an explosive charge by deck hands going into the holds with lit lanterns. Once it had finally been figured out what caused the accidents all manure packages going on board were required to be labelled "Ship High In Transit" which was later abbreviated to S.H.I.T.
- California from 'Cali', as in 'caliente, calor' -hot in Spanish, calories, etc. and 'fornia' as in fornicate. Thus California allegedly used to be called Tierra de la California, the land of hot sex. (So as to not leave the origins of the name in doubt, California was the name of an island of Amazons in Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo's Las Sergas de Esplandián, The Voyages of Esplandián, a romance popular at the time of the region's discovery. See Origin of the name California.)
- G.O.L.F. (for golf). Sometimes thought to be an acronym for "Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden". However, the word golf is over 500 years old. In the oldest Scottish writings, the word was spelled gouff, goiff, goffe, goff, gowff, and golph. The acronym cannot be formed with any of those spellings, and furthermore, the development of the acronym in the English language is mostly a 20th century phenomenon, perhaps as a backronym.
- The word news is often thought to be an acronym of the four cardinal directions (North, East, West, and South). However, old spellings of the word varied widely—newesse, newis, nevis, neus, newys, niewes, newis, nues, etc.
- P.O.S.H. (for posh). Port Out, Starboard Home: on a ship sailing from Britain to India, cabins on the port (left) side receive less sun than those on the starboard (right) side, and on the return trip the opposite is true.
- Welsh Rarebit. This supposedly original spelling of the British cheese-on-toast snack, pronounced and normally spelled 'Welsh rabbit', presumably indicates that it is a 'rare bit' - an undercooked, or perhaps occasional, morsel?
Eponyms
Here are some words which are commonly thought to be eponyms, but are not:
- Asphalt – Leopold von Asphalt
- Avocado – Jorge-Luis Avocado
- Brassiere or Bra - Otto Titzling (this one propagated by the original edition of Trivial Pursuit and the movie Beaches)
- Buffet – Pierre-Alphonse Buffet
- Bugle – Hereward Bugle
- Cabaret – Antoine de Cabaret
- Comma – Domenico da Comma
- Corset – Etienne Corset
- Crap – Earl Crapper (The flush toilet was indeed popularised to a large extent by an Englishman named Thomas Crapper, though the coincidence of his surname is, sadly for some, only that - a coincidence. The slang term 'crap' for faeces, or to defecate, was in common use long before this time).
- Curry – Sir George Curry
- Ketchup – Noah Ketchup
- Lager beer – Gottfried Lager
- Marmalade – João Marmalado
- the word nasty – Thomas Nast [5]
- Salon – Marquise Henriette de Salon
Two eponyms that are true, however: the sandwich was named for the Earl of Sandwich, and the napoleon pastry for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France.
