popular etymology
noun/ˌpɒpjələr etɪˈmɒlədʒi/
/ˌpɑːpjələr etɪˈmɑːlədʒi/
(also folk etymology)
[uncountable, countable]- a popular but wrong belief about the origin of a word or phrase
- a process by which a word is changed, for example because people believe that it is related to another word, even though it is not, or to make a foreign word sound more familiar
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popular etymology