Folk etymology definition

[Matthew Gordon]

It doesn't sound wrong to me, just incomplete, since, e.g., not all folk
etymologies involve borrowed words.


On 3/7/08 8:54 AM, "Scot LaFaive" <scotlafaive at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Reading through the "Did you know?" section of the MW word of the day email,
> I came across this:
>
> "...a process called folk etymology, in which a word of another language is
> transformed to a more familiar-sounding term..."
>
> I've never heard folk etymology defined as such and it seems completely
> wrong from what I've always been taught and read. Is there some hidden
> definition that I've never heard of before or is Merriam Webster shoveling
> shit?
>
> Scot
>
> BTW, here's the full section:
>
> "The Chinook of the Pacific Northwest were avid traders, and in the course
> of their history a trade language developed that came to be known as Chinook
> jargon, based on a combination of Chinook and other American Indian
> languages with English and French. The Chinook jargon term "hayo makamak"
> meant "plenty to eat." By a process called folk etymology, in which a word
> of another language is transformed to a more familiar-sounding term, "hayo"
> was identified with "high" and the spelling and meaning of the entire phrase
> was transformed. Beginning in the 19th century, the term "high-muck-a-muck"
> referred to a self-important person. Since then, the expression has taken on
> several variations, including "high mucky-muck" and "high-muckety-muck," and
> nowadays the "high" is often dispensed with entirely."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org