Folk etymology (Was Re: Swiss enchiladas)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Fri, 29 Oct 1999, Gregory {Greg} Downing wrote:

> Since I'm being picky tonight, does anyone happen to have an early citation
> in English for the term "folk-etymology"? The earliest I have (a year
> earlier than OED2's earliest citation) is A. S. Palmer's 1882 volume
> _Folk-Etymology_ (gee, that must have been hard to find, Greg). I also have
> an 1876 citation of the term in German, i.e., Karl Andersen's monograph
> _Deutsche Volksetymologie_. Anything earlier than that?

As far as the English first use goes, I researched this years ago and was
not able to find anything pre-1882.  The OED's missing of Palmer's 1882
usage was one of the most glaring omissions in the whole Dictionary.

Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2