folk etymology meaning - Search
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    Productive force

    The technical term "folk etymology" refers to a change in the form of a word caused by erroneous popular suppositions about its etymology. Until the academic development of comparative linguistics and description of laws underl… See more

    Related phenomena

    Other types of language change caused by reanalysis of the structure of a word include rebracketing and back-formation.
    In rebracketing, users of the language change, misinterpret, or reinterpret the location of … See more

    Examples in English

    In linguistic change caused by folk etymology, the form of a word changes so that it better matches its popular rationalisation. Typically this happens either to unanalysable foreign words or to compound… See more

    Other languages

    Several words in Medieval Latin were subject to folk etymology. For example, the word widerdonum meaning 'reward' was borrowed from Old High German widarlōn 'repayment of a loan'. The l → d alteration is due to co… See more

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