[Ads-l] Major Antedating of "Fakelore"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Mar 23, 2026, at 11:40 AM, Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Looks like a simple error to me.  "Fakelore" doesn't seem to fit the
> context.

That was my take too when I read Fred’s 1893 find. But what stumped me was the incongruity of viewing this as a simple typo. And by 1893 “folklore” was a familiar enough term that it’s hard to see “fakelore” as an eggcorn. On the other hand, “folk” and “fake" are sometimes more or less interchangeable in the context of “folk/fake etymology”.  I guess we’ll never know. 

LH 
> 
> But here is a genuine antedating (Fred has undoubtedly found it):
> 
> 1944 _Charlotte Observer_ (Aug. 20) II 13:  We can but tally it up as
> another bit of American wildlife fakelore.
> 
> The words appears four more times in the _Observer_ over the next month.
> 
> The received wisdom among folklorists back when I almost majored in the
> subject was that Richard Dorson had coined the word in 1949, but
> Newspapers.com quotes Dorson using it one year earlier.
> 
> JL
> 
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 10:59 AM Shapiro, Fred <
> 00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> 
>> fakelore (OED 1949)
>> 
>> 1893 Philadelphia Inquirer 18 June 15/2 (Newspapers.com)
>> 
>> The Oriental section [of the Chicago World's Fair], in charge of Mr.
>> Culin, director of the museum [at the University of Pennsylvania], has its
>> collection in the Anthropological Building.  It comprises an extensive
>> exhibit of games, fakelore and religious objects.
>> 
>> Fred Shapiro
>> 
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>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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