Folk etymology definition

[Scot LaFaive]

>The sense that M-W defines is the more technical one.

I was only aware of the one definition, that of a commonly held belief
about the original of a word/phrase/etc.

Scot

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:30 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Folk etymology definition
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Folk etymology" can be a confusing term because there are two distinct
> senses of the term.
>
> The sense that M-W defines is the more technical one. It's the sense
> you'll
> find more often in the work produced by linguists and lexicographers. The
> word need not be borrowed from another language to be subject to folk
> etymology, only unfamiliar to a particular group of speakers. "Bridegroom"
> is a good example of a folk etymology that is not borrowed. As the Old
> English "gome" or "guma" (man) fell out of use, it was transformed into
> "groom" in the specific sense of a man to be married.
>
> The other sense is that of a popular etymology, a commonly held belief,
> often but not necessarily untrue, about the origin of a word or phrase.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Scot LaFaive
> Sent: Friday, March 07, 2008 6:55 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Folk etymology definition
>
> 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."
>
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