[Ads-l] Major Antedating of "Fakelore"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Actually, the 1944 "fakelores" don't mean what Dorson meant. Dorson's
"fakelore" is non-folklore hawked to the public as the real thing. The
_Observer's_ usage, however, refers to real folklore that happens to be
false.

In other words, what most people call "folklore."

A later column contrasts "FAKELORE" with "FACTLORE."

JL

On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 11:51 AM Laurence Horn <
00001c05436ff7cf-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

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