False etymology

Common card · No. 345119

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). 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).

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