Folk etymology. Chapter sixteen

- (German Volksetymologie, French etymologie populaire) a term introduced by the German linguist Förstemann (1852) to designate a specific linguistic phenomenon of complete or partial rethinking of a word as a result of arbitrary ... ... Literary encyclopedia

FOLK ETYMOLOGY- (false etymology) understanding the morphological composition of the word and motivating its meaning based on convergence with consonant words that are different from it in origin (Russian vernacular semi-clinic instead of polyclinic) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

FOLK ETYMOLOGY- (from the Greek etymon - truth; the main meaning of the word + ...logy). False etymology, lexical association. Remaking and rethinking a word based on the model of another word that is similar in sound, establishing semantic connections between them based on... ... New dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)

folk etymology- (false etymology), understanding the morphological composition of the word and motivating its meaning based on convergence with consonant words that are different from it in origin (Russian colloquial “poluklinika” instead of “polyclinic”). * * * PEOPLE... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Folk etymology- (another name: Paronymic attraction) Replacement in the minds of speakers of the primary motivation that formed the basis for the formation of a word with the idea of a motivational connection between a word and a word that is not related to the word-formation relationship under consideration... Handbook of Etymology and Historical Lexicology

Folk etymology- rethinking a word (borrowed or native), semantically unclear and not decomposable into meaningful parts, on the model of a word of the native language that is similar in sound, based on a purely external, random sound coincidence (colloquial... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

folk etymology- Alteration and rethinking of a borrowed (less often native) word based on the model of a word of the native language that is similar in sound, establishing semantic connections between them on the basis of a purely external, random sound coincidence, without taking into account real facts... Dictionary of linguistic terms

folk etymology- Revitalization of the internal form of a word, false etymologization in order to give the word a familiar appearance, meaning, internal form: everyday life (vm. props) ... Dictionary of linguistic terms T.V. Foal

folk etymology- a new understanding of an old word or a word taken from a foreign language, associated with an erroneous understanding of its etymological composition, cf. the current understanding of the word “witness” as “eyewitness”, connecting this word with the verb “to see”, vm. old... ... Grammar Dictionary: Grammar and linguistic terms

Folk etymology (or false)- a new understanding of an old word or a word taken from a foreign language, associated with an erroneous understanding of its etymological composition, cf. the current understanding of the word “witness” as “eyewitness”, connecting this word with the verb “to see”, vm. old meaning... ... Literary encyclopedia

Books

Chuvash folk clothing. Ethnographic Dictionary, N.I. Zakharova-Kuleva. Chuvash folk clothing has been and remains one of the interesting and complex topics in Chuvash culture. It is so diverse and rich that it is difficult to remember everything correctly at once. Published... Buy for 1537 UAH (Ukraine only)
Love for botany, Streltsova E. (ed.). By the beginning of the 17th century. The science of plants and botany was formed, still life acquired the status of an independent genre, and society became fascinated by the symbolic language of flowers. And in the next century, Swedish...

- "Anarchy": an archy: a folksy architect?

No, “anarchy”: an (without) + archy (the arched thing): someone who will not patronize MacDonalds.

"Anarchy" is an archy- as a popular name for an architect (“architect”)

No, Anarchy is an (without) and archy (something resembling an arch) - a person who does not visit McDonald's (the McDonald's symbol is two yellow arches forming the letter M).

From a conversation between two Americans

The etymology of words often fascinates people who have a vague understanding of linguistics. The most linguistically unprepared people express the most categorical judgments regarding the most complex etymological problems. Imagine a person who cannot distinguish the smell of an orange tree from the aroma of patchouli leaves - this will be our linguist, but a person absolutely far from the art of creating perfumes. Surely he will be sure that orange tree extract smells exactly like its fruit, patchouli ether is just an oil with a tropical smell, and he will not have a clear idea of what this “something tropical” smells like. Now let a person far from linguistics try to determine the etymology of a word, for example, “beluga” and “squirrel”. Based on the consonance, we can assume that both of these words have something in common with the word “white,” but this person will no longer be able to back it up with facts. The linguist will answer that our layman was partly right, the beluga was indeed called “beluga” because of the white color of the lower part of the body, but with the “squirrel” there will be difficulties. The word appeared in the 14th century, and before that there was “belaverevitsa” - a rare breed of white squirrels that existed in Ancient Rus'. But the word “ravine” has nothing to do with “enemies”, “envious people”, or anything “unfriendly”. “Ravine” is also an old Russian word meaning “spring, seething stream.” Here we see what was discussed in the previous chapter - this is a case when a word loses all sorts of “indicators” of its origin, when we simply cannot do without a particularly thorough analysis with the restoration of all semantic reconstructions.

We are talking about separating the non-scientific approach to etymology from the actual linguistic analysis of the word. Such arbitrary analysis, not supported by anything other than philistine intuition and superficial outlook, is usually called popular etymology. The ancient Romans called such etymological comparisons “bull” or “cow” etymology. Since “etymologies” of this kind often arose among the people, these false interpretations were later called “folk etymology” (as opposed to scientific etymology).

We have come closer to what we mentioned at the very beginning, talking about ancient etymology, about the arbitrariness of interpretation that existed at that time until the end of the Middle Ages. Folk etymology is the transformation of words towards their convergence with other words that seem (due to similar meanings, or forms, or various associations) related. For example, among the Stoics the convergence of the Latin crux - “cross” with crus, which means “leg”.

The concept of folk etymology, and its relationship to etymological science

The term “folk etymology” itself was introduced by the German linguist Ernst Förstemann in 1852 to designate a specific linguistic phenomenon - a complete or partial rethinking of a word as a result of its arbitrary convergence with other similar-sounding words, originating from the German - “volksetymologie” and the French - “ "etymologie populaire". But this phenomenon appeared long before it was comprehended by scientific minds. As mentioned above, the first etymological guesses appeared with the advent of even the most primitive language. But only over time did scientists learn to separate false etymology from truly scientific etymology, with the help of a large store of accumulated knowledge and methods.

The Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius gives the following definition: “Folk etymology is the understanding of the morphological composition of a word and the motivation of its meaning based on convergence with consonant words that are different from it in origin.” The Oxford Dictionary gives a similar definition: “...the adaptation of the form of an unfamiliar or foreign word during use so that the word can be related to a word or phrase already known to the speaker.” Examples are also given there: in the word “crayfish » (crawfish, back away, retreat, back down), coming from the Middle English "crevice" (crack, crevice, crevice; cleft; break; break), the last syllable being understood to mean "fish", and not as part of a compound word. "Brideguma", which came from Old English, meant "newlywed", but over time the second part of the compound word became "groom", and nowadays the groom or newlywed in English is denoted by the word "bridegroom".

Scientists etymologists distinguish several types of word changes, and in connection with this they distinguish several types of etymologies. But the problem is the blurred boundaries between the proposed terms. Folk etymology is usually called popular and false, but most researchers still prefer the latter option, for example, R.R. Gelgardt believes that the term "false etymology" more successful, although it may contain some internal contradictions [Gelgardt R.R. “On lexical assimilation in connection with false (folk) etymology”, 1956].

There are no difficulties in determining children's etymology, since this is still the same process of “word creation”, closest to folk etymology, but produced by children, children's associations about unfamiliar things. It’s strange, isn’t it, that a child considers himself a “truant” if he goes for a walk with his parents.

But modern linguists use two more interesting terms - “pseudo-etymology” and “pseudo-folk etymology”. For clarification, let us give an example from the work of A.P. Chekhov, when his character interpreted “carnal love” as “love on a raft”, and for him a “bachelor” is “a hunter shooting with blank cartridges.” Thus, these two types of etymology are most often found in works of art, when the author wants to show the hero’s lack of education, or the color of, for example, a village, rural area, where illiteracy can give rise to comedy. They have an occasional coloring, that is, this etymology is fictitious. Here is V.V.’s entry. Mayakovsky, a record of a real event, about the phenomenon of false etymology: when he asked the peasants if they knew what a pavilion was, one said: “I understand. This is the main one who commands everyone.” If this case had been invented by him, we could call it pseudo-folk occasional etymology, but since it is real, it is a case of folk etymology, born of an attempt to understand an unfamiliar word.

As can be seen from the above methodology of folk etymologization, by “pseudo-etymology” the authors understand the same “folk etymology”, that is, “folk interpretation”, but in that part of it that gives occasional meaning. The term “pseudo-etymology” does not convey anything fundamentally new. Likewise, pseudo-folk etymology is the deliberate creation of a “new” word.

Sometimes the incorrect etymology of such words is disseminated through completely authoritative sources, such as special literature on etymology, because it was taken seriously by mistake. Thus, linguists do not exclude the possibility that the lexical composition of a particular language can be replenished not only by its established methods, but also with the help of words that came “from the people.” A false etymology may well be perceived as scientific, and a “freshly invented” word may enter the dictionary and become commonly used. This happened with many abusive, vulgar words in the English language, for example, most of which came into use at the end of the 20th century.

Folk etymology in English

Folk or false etymology in English is called folk (fake) etymology, popular etymology. But I would like to note that not all English linguists consider the terms “folk” and “fake” to be identical, unlike Russian linguists.

Richard Leddener, an English linguist, for example, believes that false etymology is “an invented explanation for the origin of a word.” It can be spread through jokes or made-up puns that are circulated and treated as real stories and facts.

According to Leddener, false etymology (manufactured words or phrases) should be distinguished from folk etymology, a linguistic process in which words or a phrase are transformed as a result of a misunderstanding of the origin of that word. In defense of his opinion, he provided examples:

The word “golf” is popularly attributed to the acronym “Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden" (for gentlemen only, ladies not allowed). But we know from history that the word “golf” is more than 500 years old. It was first mentioned in 1457 by King James II, in a document officially banning the game of golf in order to restore the popularity of shooting and archery. In the ancient Scottish manuscripts the spelling is, of course, different - gouff, goffe, goff, gowff, and golph, since before the advent of dictionaries people wrote by ear, as it turned out. An acronym cannot be formed from any of these words, and acronyms only came into use at the end of the 20th century.

The word "pommy" originated in Australia and is slang for a person of British origin, an emigrant from the UK. The true etymology of the word is unknown, the most common incorrect version again referring to the acronym "P.O.M.E" - Prisoner of Mother England (prisoner of Mother England), this abbreviation, according to one version, was used in the personal documentation of criminals transported from England to Australia.

An acronym was also invented for the word “news” with a decoding that includes all cardinal directions - North, East, West, South (north, east, west, south). However, the old spelling of this word varies greatly: newesse, newis, nevis, neus, newys, niewes, newis, nues, and so on.

A large place in false etymology is occupied by the so-called “Urban Legends” - “facts” obtained from anecdotes and rumors, but taken quite seriously. So, for example, the idiom “rule of thumb” (rule or law of the thumb) in translation sounds like “a practical method” (as opposed to a scientific one), “approximate calculation”. Urban legends give this idiom its original origin - the phrase spread from a list of laws in Old England, according to which a husband was allowed to beat his wife with a stick that was no thicker in diameter than his thumb.

The history of the emergence of such a concept as “caesarean section” is interesting. This concept is identical in translation into many languages. But the ancient folk etymology of this concept is most clearly manifested in the English language: there is a fictional story that Julius Caesar was born thanks to such an operation and in his honor it was called Caesarean Section, that is, “caesarean section”. It is interesting to note that this legend has taken hold in the German language under the name "Kaiserschnitt", which literally means "imperial section".

How would you explain the origin of the name “Jerusalem artichoke” if you were told that it is a type of sunflower in the USA and Canada? Folk etymology intervened in the history of this name, and from the Italian “girasole” (sunflower), according to consonance, “Jerusalem” was formed. “Artichoke” appeared due to the fact that the tubers of this plant resemble artichokes in taste and shape.

The word “cutlet”, which came into English from French (cфtelette), was mistakenly associated with the verb “cut” (to cut), a hint of this remained in the spelling of the word.

Another branch in folk etymology are false eponyms (names, often surnames of people that have become names or symbols). This direction was developed precisely in English linguistics. Here are some examples of false eponyms: Leopold von Asphalt (“asphalt”), Sir George Curry (“curry”), Joao Marmalado (“marmalade”), Gottfried Lager (“lager beer”), Antoine de Cabaret (“cabaret”), Pierre-Alphonse Buffet (“buffet”), Etienne Corset (“corset”), Jorge-Luis Avocado (“avocado”). All these words resemble the names of real or fictitious people who are “credited” with the invention of this or that device, dish, clothing... In fact, these words have a very definite scientific etymology. For example, “asphalt” comes from the Greek “asphaltos”; who Leopold Von Asphalt really was and whether he existed at all, history is silent.

Thus, from the last two chapters we can conclude that the phenomenon of folk etymology or “popular etymology” is inherent in all languages without exception, somewhere to a greater extent, and somewhere to a lesser extent. But to identify it and to clarify all the details of the transformations, a fairly deep knowledge of the language, the history of the people speaking it, and the cultural realities of a particular country is required.

Among other things, the fact remains unchanged that some words (perhaps even those included in special etymological dictionaries), which have a completely worthy scientific explanation of their origin, were actually once changed by the people, on purpose or out of ignorance, and the real etymology has been lost to centuries. Thus, linguists do not exclude the possibility that the etymology found in the most reputable etymological dictionary is incorrect, and that it may be popular, incorrect, false. This was discussed in the work just above, when scientists recognized the fact that it was impossible to identify the exact origin of the word due to insufficient knowledge and written sources.

Sociolinguistics and its connection with folk etymology

Language is a phenomenon of the spiritual culture of humanity, one of the forms of social consciousness. The uniqueness of language as a form of social consciousness lies in the fact that language not only reflects the world and is a prerequisite for social consciousness, but is a semantic foundation and a universal shell of various forms of social consciousness. Through language, a form of transmission of social experience (cultural norms and traditions, natural science and technological knowledge) inherent only to humans is carried out. We talk about such concepts in the context of sociological linguistics.

Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies the connection between language and the social conditions of its existence, developed at the intersection of linguistics, sociology, social psychology and ethnography. The science is relatively young, it began to take shape at the beginning of the 20th century (20-30s), when linguists paid attention to language as a social phenomenon. In the context of this science, many opinions have been put forward regarding the fact that language can influence human thinking, as well as theories about the nature of the relationships between linguistic and social structures. The typology of linguistic situations characterized by the distribution of social functions between different languages and dialects used by a given group has become widespread. In addition, social linguistics has established patterns of interaction between languages in various social conditions and the mutual influence of culture and language.

The importance of sociocultural relations in the study of the history of words should be emphasized. They constitute a fundamental aspect of etymological research, and the history of words is inseparable from the history of culture and civilization. Semantic universals are based primarily on cultural universals that reflect collective human experience. The connection between extra-linguistic reality and the concept, its verbal expression is not the same among different peoples, which is due to the cultural and historical differences of these peoples, the specifics of the development of their social consciousness. From here the conclusion is drawn about the differences in linguistic pictures of the world among different peoples.

One of the main problems studied by sociolinguistics is the problem of social differentiation of language at all levels of its structure, and in particular the nature of the relationships between linguistic and social structures, which are indirect. The structure of social differentiation of language is multidimensional and includes both class differentiation due to the heterogeneity of the social structure and situational differentiation due to the diversity of social situations. Thus, considering the issue of folk etymology, it would be interesting to note that this phenomenon is characterized by certain patterns associated with the social stratification of language, which is studied by sociolinguistics.

The phenomenon of folk etymology has been studied until now almost exclusively from the point of view of subjective psychological linguistics. Meanwhile, in the phenomena of folk etymology, in its direction, class ideology finds a very clear expression.

The phenomenon of folk etymology is a striking sign of vernacular speech, therefore, when we hear an interesting word or phrase, we can easily guess from what environment it came to us, or who and why would use the word in this meaning. For example, if a person far from geography suggests that there is such a country called “Oystria,” we probably will not immediately guess that he meant Austria.

Another area where the use of folk etymologization is very popular is fiction. In fact, this point is very close to the first, because here we are also talking about poorly educated people.

Such words, reinterpreted by chance consonance and semantic similarity, convey the mood of the environment where the author’s hero is placed. For example, N.S. Leskova: the character uses speeches that are understandable to any reader, but something in them is deliberately changed: “governess” (“governess” and “nanny”), “gulvar” (“boulevard” and “walk”), “beliefs” ( “variations” and “probability”), “melkoskop” (“microscope” and “small”), “prelamut” - (the result of combining two similar-sounding words “mother of pearl” and “refract light”), “bustra” (combining similar by the sound of the words “busts” and “chandeliers”, both of these words denote objects that decorate the hall, and therefore are semantically similar).

Sometimes such folk etymologies acquire greater satirical expressiveness, for example: “tugament” (“document” and “tuga” from “to grieve”), “slander” (“feuilleton” and “slander”), “Abolon Polvedersky” (an allusion to the famous statue Apollo Belvedere, the author used rearrangement of letters in these words to add a casual, folksy note to the name (half a bucket), “mimonoska”, “multiplication dolce” and so on.

Of course, such occasional formations of the authors are unlikely to be included in the dictionaries of the Russian language, but they are capable of enriching colloquial speech with novelty and humorous notes.

Difficulty reading N.S. Some critics view Leskov from the perspective of the difficulty of translating his texts and the need to read in the original, therefore a number of researchers from Great Britain believe that Leskov cannot be considered a classic due to the specifics of his difficult-to-translate style.

Examples of your own translations:

1) Prelamut - No translation (Mother-of-pearl - mother of pearl)

2) Multiplication table - No translation (Hollow - hollow out, Multiplication table - multiplication table)

3) Pubel - Pooble(Poodle - poodle)

4) Dance - Dance(Dance - dance)

5) Abolon Polvedersky - No translation

6) Nymphosoria - Nymphusorian(Nymph - nymph, infusorian - ciliate)

7) Busters - No translation (Chandelier - chandelier, bust - bust)

8) Small scope - Smallcroscope(Small - small, microscope - microscope)

Thus, folk etymologization as a phenomenon is most often observed among poorly educated people, be it unconscious transformations from ignorance and illiteracy, or consciously selected versions of words by the author (occasional coloring of pseudo-folk etymologization).

But there is another area that is most interesting from the point of view of sociolinguistics - children's speech. The most interesting because no science about language pays such close attention to a child’s speech as social linguistics combined with folk etymology. Here, at the junction, the so-called children's etymology arises.

Children's etymology

Mom, let's come to an agreement. You will say “skids” in your own way, and I will say it in my own way. carts" After all, they do not “climb”, but carry.

Why do you say “chopping wood”? After all, they don’t chop wood, but axing.

And why gloves? Necessary fingers.

Why do you call them bagels? They are not made from sheep, but from bread.

The cow doesn't butt, but horns.

No one, perhaps, is more keenly interested in questions related to the origin of words than small children. You can hear dozens of questions from a child in a few hours, and sometimes they will make even an educated person think about the correct answer. Some of these “whys” relate to the native language, to the origin of words that the child is just beginning to use in his speech.

Small children need to understand everything, but if a word is not clear, the child will change it, perhaps completely unconsciously. But no matter how many examples of such “freshly invented” words the world knows, they are all formed according to the same model - semantic.

Children's etymology differs from folk etymology in that its authors are children of preschool and primary school age. Children's etymology is close to pseudo-folk, but differs from it. This difference lies in the fact that writers engage in pseudo-folk etymology for a specific purpose determined by their writing craft, while children, by changing words, strive to bring them into line with their existing ideas about the world of things and phenomena surrounding them. For some children, a hammer is not a “hammer” (because it is not used for hammering), but a “mallet” (because it is used for hammering).

If in folk etymology the alteration of an unfamiliar word or expression occurs spontaneously, then in children's etymology a commonly used word that is understandable to all adults is “corrected,” and children motivate their “correction” and treat it consciously, relying on their little life experience. The child reasons something like this: “What is placed on a sore spot should be called a “plaster”, not a “plaster”, as adults say." Or: “Do they cut with a plane? No, they plan it, so that means it should be called? "planed".

Here are several children's etymologies that we heard and recorded at different times: “bariness” (“baroness”, for some reason derived from “master”), “short” (instead of “short” due to “height”), crowd (instead of “crush” because of “crowd”), “herbivores” (instead of “herbivores” derived from “food”).

Such changes are always comical, sometimes even reaching the point of absurdity, but no matter what you hear, pay attention, the phrase will never be devoid of meaning.

Children's etymology is also united with folk etymology by the fact that the same word is etymologized in the same way by several children, as evidenced by K.I. Chukovsky in his book “From Three to Five.” Here is one example: “write - scribe”, “play - player", "read - reader", "lie - liar », « sleep - specialist". Chukovsky calls such word creation “unconscious mastery,” and explains many examples by the same method of comprehending heard words by unintentionally substituting a minimum number of sounds. If a child is unfamiliar with the word “vermouth,” he can turn it into “wormwood” without even thinking, and this will be “unconscious mastery.” An example of rethinking the word “Austria” in English in consonance with “oyster” (oyster) has already been mentioned above, but this idea belongs specifically to a child’s imagination.

The children's humor magazine “Funny Pictures” quotes the following words on its pages: “varyulya” (instead of “pan”), “injection” (instead of “needle”), attributed to children’s etymology. As for such words as “toothgrab” (instead of “crocodile”), “dilibomchik” (instead of “bell”), cited in the same place, they cannot be attributed to words of children’s etymology, since they are not altered, but created anew. These are occasional neoplasms.

In one of the films, a little boy, in a conversation with his father, said that he would like pancakes with “chocolate shavers” (chocolate electric razors), to which the father good-naturedly replied - not “shavers”, but “shavings” - which in translation sounded like: “Not cheesecakes, but shavings, stupid.” This is the kind of play on words that can happen when translating such “word creations”.

Children's etymology? This is such an alteration of commonly used words, which, in the opinion of children, brings clarity to the content of the corrected word, correlating the latter with another word that is well known to them.

Thus, if a child does not notice a direct correspondence between the function of an object and its name, he corrects the name, emphasizing in this word the only function of the object that he was able to discern. Thus, we are convinced again and again that the development of a child’s speech is a unity of imitation and creativity. The child unconsciously demands that the sound has meaning, that the word has a living, tangible image; and if this is not the case, the child himself will give the unknown word the desired image and meaning. But again, it cannot be said that the vocabulary of the official written Russian or English language will be replenished as a result of children's word creation, but oral speech will again surprise the listener with its liveliness and truly endless possibilities for linguistic experimentation.

The boundaries of “folk etymology” as a special linguistic phenomenon remain so vague to this day that this term, introduced by the German linguist Förssmann in the middle of the last century, denotes a number of heterogeneous phenomena, starting with phonetic changes in the word (assimilation, dissimilation, haplology, etc.) n ending with homophony and paronymy. This is confirmed by the works of scientists who studied phenomena attributed to folk etymology, for example R. R. Gelgardt, N. S. Derzhavin, A. I. Thomson, I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, N. V. Krushevsky, Yu. V. Otkupshchikova, L. Yu. Maksimova and others.
The content of the term itself is interpreted differently. Its numerous definitions, presented in the works of various researchers, can be combined and reduced to basic definitions.
Folk etymology is the understanding of words that are unclear in their morphological composition, devoid of semasiological associations with other words (I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay, O. S. Akhmanova).
Folk etymology is a process consisting in the fact that in the mind of the speaker a word is associated with other words that seem to explain it (“Encyclopedic Dictionary” of Brockhaus and Efron; TSB, A. I. Thomson, R. A. Budagov, Zh. . Maruso).
Folk etymology is the interpretation of meanings as they may appear to the consciousness of people who do not have scientific training and interpret words by individual associations (L. A. Bulakhovsky).
The definitions of folk etymology, given in the three main explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language (edited by D. N. Ushakov, SSRLYa and “Dictionary of the Russian Language” in 4 volumes), differ from the previous definitions, but are similar to each other. These definitions formed the basis for the formulation given in the “Handbook of Linguistic Terms” by D. E. Rosenthal and M. A. Telenkova (1973):
Folk etymology. Alteration and rethinking of a borrowed (less often native) word according to the model of a word of the native language that is close in sound, the establishment of semantic connections between them on the basis of a purely external, random sound coincidence, without taking into account the real facts of their origin [p. 1721.
In previous definitions of folk etymology, nothing was said about the alteration of a borrowed word. But this is the main element in determining folk etymology.
The term folk etymology, starting from the end of the 19th century, has been considered unsuccessful by a number of scientists [14, p. 33], but according to tradition it continues to be used to this day, meaning not only the “folk etymology” itself, but also different types of phonetic-morphological and semantic changes in the word.
In linguistics, there are other terms that are used in parallel with the term folk etymology with the purpose of clarifying it, and sometimes replacing it. Thus, some researchers, identifying the concepts of “folk etymology” and “false etymology,” prefer the term false etymology. For example, R.R. Gelgardt believes that the term folk etymology is unsuccessful primarily because “folk” here, in essence, refers to erroneous and false phenomena. The term false etymology seems more successful, although it may contain some internal contradictions.
TSB makes an attempt to distinguish between folk and false etymology, but it does so inconsistently. Thus, in the second edition of the TSB, to illustrate the first type in the dictionary entry Folk Etymology [i.e. 29], as well as to illustrate the second type in the dictionary entry False etymology [i.e. 25], the same example is given: the word semi-clinic. In the third edition of the TSB in the dictionary entry False etymology [i.e. 14] notes that “collective false etymology” is folk etymology. But the dictionary entry Folk Etymology [t-17] says nothing about the fact that it arises on a false basis. Appeal to the dictionary entry Etymology in the third edition of the TSB Convinces that folk etymology and false etymology are doublet terms: “Folk (or false) Etymology is the name given to cases of secondary etymological understanding, the attraction of words that originally had a different origin” [i.e. 30, p. 296].
Folk etymology should hardly be called false, if only because some of the folk etymological words entered the vocabulary of the language as equal verbal units, displacing their legitimate counterpart.
This, for example, happened with the Old Russian word Morovia, which was replaced by the word Murdven, formed according to the principle of folk etymology from the noun llurlva. The word humble did not exist in the Old Russian language. It contained the word съм"рень, from сългърти - “to moderate, soften, suppress” (from lgkrl). Subsequently, according to folk etymology, it was transformed into the more understandable humble (from the world).
In the Old Russian language there was a word krndo. In this form it has been preserved in the Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovenian languages. However, in the Russian language, having fallen into the sphere of influence of the understandable word kryt, it began to be perceived as derived from this word: wing - what one covers. In this vowel, it entered the vocabulary of the Russian language.
Similar to these words, n such as myopic (from myopic), close to close and hand have entered the Russian language; workbench (from German Werkstatt), similar to typesetting; flaw (from Turkic ziyan), similar to take away.
Along with the terms folk etymology, false etymology
N.V. Krushevsky, A.I. Thomson, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay used the term folk word production, which, however, was not widespread, although it correctly reflects the essence of folk etymology. The term semasiological assimilation is also found in the works of Baudouin de Courtenay.
D. S. Lotte, in a note to the term comprehension he uses, states: “The phenomenon of “comprehension” in linguistic literature is often called “folk etymology.” J. Maruso in the “Dictionary of Linguistic Terms” (1960) reports that “French grammarians sometimes call paronymic attraction a process better known as folk etymology,” and O. S. Akhmanova in the dictionary article (“Dictionary of Linguistic Terms”, 1966), dedicated to paronymic attraction, states unconditionally: “Paronymic attraction is the same as folk etymology (see etymology).”
Scientists have made attempts to classify words related to folk etymology. Thus, Academician N.S. Derzhavin in his article “Folk etymology” identified three main types of it. The first type is, as the author points out, “a simple apperception of a foreign word, which lt;...gt; undergoes, however, a certain reworking in the sense of approximation to the usual native word: gulvar or gulbar, iebel, nekrut, miroder, skupilyant.”
To the second type N.S. Derzhavin includes such borrowed words that change not only their phonetic and morphological appearance, but also their semantics: play tricks, front garden, katavasiya, swagger, T-shirt.
The third type seems to N. S. Derzhavin as “genuine, active and creative folk etymology,” “when the people really etymologize, giving an explanation of the meaning of both foreign and outdated home words that are incomprehensible to them, lt;...gt; trying to reveal the real meaning of a word he does not understand.” The author illustrates this type of folk etymology with the following example. In old Moscow, a famous church was called the “Church of St. Trinity on drops." It was said about this church with such a strange name that it was built on the site of a former tavern. The legend that arose in connection with this name tries to explain it: as if at the end of the 17th century. The tselovnik who sold in the tavern poured a few drops from each glass of wine he sold into a special dish, and with the money raised from the sale of these drops, he built a church on the site of the tavern, which is why it is called “the church on drops, or the church on drops.”
It is quite possible that, as N.S. Derzhavin reports, there used to be a tile factory on the site of the church, and the church built “on tiles” began to be called “church on droplets” because droplets are clearer and closer to local residents than tiles. If this is so, then the phenomenon in question of replacing one word with another should be attributed to paronnmy, and not to one of the types of “folk etymology”.
The disorder of terminology, the lack of precise boundaries between heterogeneous phenomena in the field of etymology, the confusion of the phenomena under study with others that are not related to etymology, require clarification of the term itself.
Based on the definitions of modern Russian explanatory dictionaries, we believe that folk etymology is such an alteration of the phonomorphological structure of an incomprehensible word that brings it closer to a more familiar word both phonetically and in meaning, and allows us to comprehend it.
When describing “folk etymology,” the authors of the articles use examples from the fund created by Russian linguists at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. and replenished extremely sparingly. This suggests that folk etymological words arise, firstly, in the sphere of oral speech, and secondly, among illiterate people or people who have not received sufficient education. With the growth of scientific knowledge and linguistic culture, “the scope of distribution of false etymology is increasingly shrinking.”
Of the folk etymological formations that have not become national and not included in explanatory dictionaries, but are often cited in textbooks, teaching aids and special articles devoted to folk etymology, the following can be cited to illustrate this phenomenon.
Masculine nouns: blizir (from French pleznr), sblpzh. with close; spinzhak (from a jacket), close. from the back, krylos (from the Greek kliros), sblnzh. with wing; thimble (from confidant), close. with a finger; skoropadent (from correspondent), sblpzh. with soon n fall (the word is included by Baudouin de Courtenay in the third edition of V. I. Dahl’s Explanatory Dictionary); skudent (from student), close. with scanty; scupulator (from speculator), close. to buy up; like a handbag (from a reticule), close. with like a cul.
Feminine nouns: winepolka (from monopolka), closer. with wine; gallery (from gallery), close. with noisy; section (from execution), close. with flog; semi-clinic (from a polyclinic), close with floor and clinic.
Adjectives: burgundy (from burgundy), closer. from burda; high-rise (from leap year), close from high places, malicious (from inveterate), close. with the evil one.
Numeral: lemonard (out of a billion), approx. with lemon (according to the color of the banknote).
Verb: descend (from skaputsya), closer. with cabbage
Not much has been added to the textbook folk etymological words over the past three quarters of a century. The following are known.
Masculine nouns: kinoscope (nz kinescope), close. from cinema; kirovogas (from kerogas), close. with the name of the city of Kirov as the supposed place of production of kerosene gases; neocarditis (from myacarditis), close. with neo (new); nervousness (from neurosis), close. with nerves; neuropathologist (from neuropathologist), close. with nerves; subscript (from postscript), close "with under and creaking (pen); stationary
(from hospital), close from station; hosebaum (from barrier), close. with hose ^
Nouns of the female swarm: lotoreya (from lottery), close. with lotto; peretubation (from perturbation), close. with re- and pipe; hole (from a test tube), close with a hole.
Adverb: mutually (from mutually), close. from on loan.
In contrast to scientific etymology, “folk etymology” writes
IO. V. Otkupshchikov does not reconstruct lost etymological connections, but tries to explain the origin of the word based on the current state of the language for the author of etymology. As a rule, such “etymologies” do not contain any scientific argumentation. They rely only on a random coincidence or even on a very distant similarity in the sound of words.
When considering the phenomena of folk etymology, it is important to establish how a difficult word is comprehended and its convergence with an already known word or part of it.
All phonetic changes in a word in folk etymology must necessarily lead to the appearance in it of some meaning that was absent before the transformation. Without the last condition, that is, without the appearance of “meaning” in the word, intelligibility for the speaker, phonetic changes in the word are not folk etymological.
The alteration of the original word, the prototype word, is carried out as follows: only incomprehensible sound combinations are changed, which “obscure” the understanding of the entire word. Such a replacement leads to subsequent understanding of the word, making it to some extent understandable, easy to perceive and convey to other native speakers. What do the words clinic or hospital mean? For a certain category of people these words are not motivated. But by replacing part of the word poly-na with semi-, and station-with the familiar stantsio, they formed more or less understandable words: semi-clinic and station. This replacement of supposedly insignificant, incomprehensible sound combinations in a word with significant ones occurs even today: the sound combinations neuro- (neurosis, neuropathologist), pali- (front garden), stud- (student), specu- (speculator), ekze- (execution), replaced The sound combinations pervo- (nervoz, pervopathol), semi- (semi-kindergarten), scud- (skudent), scup- (skupulant), seku- (secutia) made the word understandable, correlated them with familiar, familiar words.
With folk etymology, two types of changes in a word are possible. In some cases, the whole word is subjected to folk etymological understanding; it seems as if there are no unclear, unintelligible sound complexes left in it, all its parts become “meaningful”, motivated: re-tubing, instead of per-turbation (re- is perceived as a prefix, tion - as a suffix), kirov-o-gas instead of kerogas, painkillers (drugs) instead of painkillers.
In other cases, after changing a word, only one of its components turns out to be explained, and the rest, located both in pre- and post-position relative to the “clear” component, remain untouched and, therefore, not “explained”: brooder(?)-fine , frika(?)-dolka) hoover(?)-yapka, hose-baum(?). F. de Saussure called such complexes that remained uninterpreted “folk etymologies stuck halfway.” One cannot but agree with F. de Saussure that “folk etymology is a pathological phenomenon in language; it appears only in exceptional cases and affects only rare words, technical terms or borrowings from other languages that are difficult for speakers to master.”
Such words are most often subject to folk etymological alterations in dialects. Moreover, similar changes in the prototype word can be noted in several dialects, variant changes - only in some of them. O. D. Kuznetsova gives an example of such a folk etymological change. The word valerian exists in the form averyaiovka in the Pskov, Smolensk and Bryansk regions, and in the forms averyanka and averyaiovka - only in the Pskov and Bryansk regions. Averyanka is not mentioned in Smolensk dialects. The popular word valerian took on a different form in dialects “as a result of association with the proper name Averyan, which is more familiar to speakers of dialects.”
This connection between the proper name Averyan and the word valerian is also noted by M. Vasmer in his dictionary. However, in this case we are not dealing with folk etymology, but with paronymy (replacing one word with another, similar-sounding), as in the case of the name amphibian (boat), which was replaced (and not changed!) by the word afimya (from the female proper name Afimya) (this case was noted by N.A. Petrovsky in the “Dictionary of Russian Personal Names”, 1966). This replacement is indicated
O. D. Kuznetsova, mistakenly considering the change in the phonetic appearance of the word amphibian to be a consequence of folk etymology.
A special case of folk etymology should be considered the comprehension of a word that is difficult to spell. For example, how to write the words vanilla (French vanille) and morality (French morale)? A person who is not literate enough can explain the spelling of a dubious vowel by elevating vanilla to the word stench, and morality to the verb to dirty. There are not many such examples when in a prototype word one orthographic complex is replaced by another as a result of the substitution of the etymon of the prototype, and they mainly cover cases of replacement of an orthographic complex with an unstressed vowel and an orthographic complex with an unstressed o, which has the same pronunciation as the complex with a: gromophone (vm. gramophone), close. with thunder, loud; casein (vm. casein), close. with goat, goat; kopital (vm. capital), close. with hoard; kostet (vm. brass knuckles), close. with bone; posazhir (vm. passenger), close with plant, planted; sports day (vm. sports day), close. with sports; date (vm. subsidy), approx. pass; youthfulness (v. cowardice), closeness. with a young person; costanets (vm. castanets), close. with bone; morbid (vm. balneological), close. with pain, sick.
There are fewer cases of folk etymology that arise when replacing an orthographic complex with an unstressed e orthographic complex with an unstressed and, less: ventilator (vm. fan), close. with screw, screw; mimorandum (vm. memorandum), close. with by; pilikan (vm. pelican), close. with sawing; prelude (vm. prelude), close. with in public - decorative (vm. decorative), close. with wild.
In V. Gubarev’s story “Journey to the Morning Star,” one of the characters says: “But you, doctor, it seems, have already become acclimated to the Morning Star.” Examining the highlighted word, V. A. Itskovich notes: “Beyond the norm there will be a form of “acclimatize,” illegally formed according to the type of bourgeois, get used to, instead of the literary acclimatize.” This phenomenon is not given a name in the article.
In living (oral) speech, the words acclimatize and oklimatiziratsya and similar ones are pronounced the same (or almost the same), and therefore the second of them should be recognized as a folk-ethnological word. In writing, they differ from each other in spelling, and only this circumstance gave the author of the article grounds to talk about the illegal appearance of the word acclimate. The interlocutors themselves do not see (or rather, do not hear) the difference between these words (unless, of course, the character pronounces this word the way he would write it). Only the reader notices the difference, which is what the author of the story expected.
A similar phenomenon is observed in the pair annul (Latin annulare - “to destroy”) and annulirovat, formed according to the principles of folk etymology, which has the meaning “to turn into zero, into nothing,” close to the meaning of the word annul. There is no difference in pronunciation between them. It will be visible only if the last word is pronounced, highlighting the first syllable and placing emphasis on o (okaya).
In the above cases, it is relatively easy to separate the word-rototype from its folk etymological variant. The situation is different with the words gudgeon and gudgeon. It is difficult to say which of them is a prototype and which is a folk etymological formation, since the origin of the name of the fish is still not clear.
If, as M.R. Vasmer and the authors of IES claim, it comes from the word squeak (they say that this fish squeaks when it is picked up), then it should be written with an “and”, and in this case the second explanation (minnow comes from sand) should be recognized by folk etymology. But this word in the “Spelling Dictionary” of the USSR Academy of Sciences is written with an “e”! In the dictionaries of the 18th century. the word is given only in the form minnow. Discrepancies in spelling have been noted only since the “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” of 1793. A very old text from the magazine "Foreign Languages and Study Abroad"

In the 1990s, the word began to be actively used in the Russian language privatization, previously found only in the works of academic economists. And almost immediately another word appeared - privatization. Why did it arise? Why do they sometimes say in common parlance semi-clinic instead of clinic, spinjak instead of blazer, nervousness instead of neurosis?
The fact is that words in a language differ in the degree of “transparency” and human understandability. Word boletus"transparent" means "grows under the birch tree." But about cactus a person cannot say why it is named that way. Linguists call words of the first type motivated or having internal shape. Sometimes people, faced with an unmotivated word, try to comprehend it, and as a result, a new word appears, which already has an internal form that is understandable to a person. And so they appeared privatization, semi-clinic, spinjak, nervousness and other similar words. The German linguist Förssmann called this phenomenon folk etymology. This is the definition given to folk etymology by the “dictionary of linguistic terms”: “the desire to look for internal form in words as a rational explanation of the meaning of words without taking into account the real facts of their origin.” If scientific etymology establishes the origin of words and explores their history, then folk etymology tries to explain words on the basis of random consonance.
Folk etymology, naturally, is found not only in the Russian language. English name of the dance country dance literally "country dance", in French it became contredanse"counterdance", where the first part of the name literally means "counter-". Name of medicine liqueur a pioncer"sleepy drink" - the result of the transformation liqueur opiacee"opium drink" The fire-resistant mineral from which smoking pipes are sometimes made is called meerschaum. This mineral is mined in mines, not on the seabed. Where does this name come from? Previously, pipes produced by the manufacturer were common in France Kummer. They were called pipe de Kummer"Kummer's pipe", but this name through folk etymology turned into pipe d'écume de mer"sea foam pipe" Later, under the influence of French, the names of this mineral appeared in other languages: German Meerschaum and Russian meerschaum 1 . Italian name for tomato pomi dei Mori"Apples of the Moors", the French perceived as pommes d'amour"apples of love", thanks to the French language, similar names also appeared in English and German: love-apples And Liebesäpfel, now obsolete.
The Hausa language is spoken in northern Nigeria. Since its speakers are Muslim, it was written in the 18th century based on the Arabic alphabet. At the end of the 19th century, after the colonization of Nigeria by the British, a variant of writing based on the Latin alphabet appeared. This option is called boko- "Latin letter; secular European education" (from English book"book"). However, the word is the same as a Hausa word meaning “counterfeit, counterfeit, deceit.” This coincidence was used by the Muslim clergy in agitation against Christian preachers and Europeans in general. Word boko continued to be used in independent Nigeria. In 1965, the poet Aliyu Husaini composed a poem for the election campaign dedicated to one of the political leaders of Northern Nigeria, Ahmad Bello (Sardauna). Here is an excerpt from it:
Sardauna ya ce gadararku boko
In mun ga dama mu d"auke shi soko
Domin fa mu ba mu salla da boko
Can Lahira ba aiki da boko
Allah ka taimaki mai gaskiya
Sardauna said that your Latin alphabet is a betrayal
We should treat it like it's stupid
After all, we do not use the Latin alphabet in our faith
And in Heaven there is no Latin alphabet
May Allah help those who are on the side of truth 2
Here are more examples of folk etymology. During the war trip food card issued to those traveling to another city. Quite quickly they began to call her regular, A rail, associated with the word rails. The English name of the animal - garden dormouse - dormouse appeared due to the fact that the French word dormeuse"sleeper" was confused with English mouse"mouse". The ancient Greeks, trying to explain the origin of words, also often resorted to folk etymology, and sometimes, in particularly difficult cases, even invented artificial words. Examples of such words can be found in Plato's dialogue Cratylus. So from a made-up word sela-eno-nea-aeia“the eternally old and eternally new luminary” supposedly comes from the word Selene"Moon".
It happens that only one of the two parts of an incomprehensible word changes. This is how words like: brotherhood penalty instead of brotherhood, meatball instead of meatball, governess instead of governess. The famous Swiss linguist F. de Saussure called such words “folk etymologies stuck halfway.”
The destiny of words created by folk etymology is, at best, vernacular, reduced, illiterate speech. However, it also happens that such words enter the language, and their predecessors disappear. So, in the Russian word ant in fact, the first syllable should have sounded O, not U (compare with Polish mrowka). But once in the Russian language this word was influenced by the word ant. As a result, Old Russian Morovian turned into ant. In a word wing historically there was a vowel I (Serbian winged, Slovenian krilo, Czech kr&@x00ED;dlo, Old Russian winged). But under the influence of the verb cover the root vowel changed, and in modern Russian this word turned into wing. At the word gudgeon the story is more complicated. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this word was more often written with an I: minnow, however, since the 17th century, the writing has been noticed gudgeon, which later became the only one. This fish does not have a generally accepted etymology: perhaps it is related to the Latin piscis"fish" may be derived from the word squeak, and maybe from the word sand. If the assumptions of scientists linking gudgeon with the Latin word are correct, then both Russian etymologies turn out to be folk. Under the influence of folk etymology, the verb received a new meaning dominate, which used to mean “to be sufficient.” He was brought closer to words press, pressure, and it got the meaning “to crush, suppress, weigh down.”
The principles of folk etymology are actively used in the speech of children. K.I. Chukovsky also gave the following examples: street man - policeman, mazelin - petrolatum and others. Later, when children go to school, folk etymology may serve them badly. Having encountered an unknown word in a dictation, they write it down, trying to correlate it with familiar words, and as a result, errors occur. Teachers noted, for example, the following writings: sports competition(close to the word sport), capital(with the word save up), dating(With give), stink(With stench).
If folk etymology bothers schoolchildren, it often helps writers. N. S. Leskov, for example, created words such as: busters(from busts And chandeliers), propaganda(from propaganda And frighten), motarius(from reel And notary), microscope(from microscope And small), and so on.
With the help of folk etymology, incomprehensible geographical names are often explained. In the northeast of European Russia there is a river Shuya, from which the surname of the princes Shuisky came. It is often believed that this river name comes from the Slavic word awesome"left", shuitza"left hand". But in fact, this name appeared when tribes who spoke Finnish languages lived near the river. It comes from words related to Finnish suo- "swamp" and oja- "river". Same word suo present in the name of Finland - Suomi. The ancient Greek historian Diodorus in the book “Historical Library” says that one day shepherds left a fire unattended in the mountains, which completely burned out an entire mountain area. Therefore, according to Diodorus, these mountains began to be called Pyrenees(from Greek pyr- fire). In fact, the name of the Pyrenees Mountains is related to the word pyren"peak, mountain range" in Basque. This is not surprising, since the Basques are the oldest inhabitants of these places.
Folk etymology is often used in myths to explain obscure names. The name of the goddess of love is Aphrodite- was once borrowed by the ancient Greeks from the Phoenicians. But the Greeks did not understand this name, and they tried to interpret it using words aphros"foam" and dynō"diving". Many believe that this is how the myth of the birth of Aphrodite from sea foam appeared.
In the Old Testament we often see the use of folk etymology. Eve (Heb. Chavva) gets her name from the word “life” (Heb. chayim), since she became the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20). Scientific etymology connects the name of Eve with the Aramaic name Hevya. The name of Cain (Hebrew: blacksmith) in the book of Genesis is derived from the word kana “to acquire,” for Eve at his birth said that she “had acquired a man from the Lord” (Gen. 4:1). The name of the city of Babylon (Heb. Bavel) is derived from the verb balal "to mix", since the languages of the builders of the Tower of Babel were mixed there. In fact, the city's name comes from Semitic roots meaning "gate of god."
In the book of Exodus we can read that Moses (Heb. Moshe) got his name because when the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, having found a basket with a baby in the reeds, “she called his name Moses, because, she said, I She took him out of the water" (Exodus 2:10). However, this interpretation of the name contradicts the rules of Jewish grammar. The word Moshe can be interpreted as a form of the verb limshot "to pull out", but only as active, not passive, that is, "one who pulls out" and not "one who is pulled out." In addition, it is unlikely that the Egyptian woman spoke Hebrew. The name Moses is Egyptian. It is a word meaning "child" and is a contraction of many names derived from Egyptian gods. Among such names: Amon-mose "Amon-child", Pta-mose "Pta-child", Tut-mose (Tutmose) "That-child" or Ram-mose (Ramses) "Ra-child". These names, in turn, are probably abbreviations of the full expressions "Amon (gave) the child" or "Ptah (gave) the child." The word Mose was used as a shortened version of all these names, and is found in Egyptian monuments.
Sometimes folk etymology is used to explain why a particular saint patronizes a particular activity. For example, earlier in some regions of Russia, trade in new harvest onions began on the day of St. Luke the Evangelist. Folk etymology has also given rise to a number of signs. Here is one of them: from St. Lupp the frost crushes the oats (that is, the oats fall off). The day of the holy martyr Lupus of Thessaloniki fell on August 23 (September 5, new style). The Monk Theodore the Studite, who lived in Byzantium in the 8th century, received his nickname from the Studite Monastery. The church celebrates his memory on November 11 (24), and the people created a proverb: “Fyodor chills the earth.” In accordance with Russian folk beliefs, on Saint Pud (April 15 (23)) it was necessary to “get the bees out of hiding,” and on the day of the Holy Martyr Basilisk of Komansky (March 3 (16)) they did not sow or plow so that the field would not it became clogged and the cornflowers did not grow.
Sometimes it is proposed to distinguish between folk etymology (explanation of an incomprehensible word using similar words) and folk word production (word changes under the influence of folk etymology, Baudouin de Courtenay's term).

1. It’s not entirely clear about this foam; it seems that according to other sources, it actually occurs in the sea and actually foams.

Folk etymology

Replacement in the minds of speakers of the primary motivation, which formed the basis for the formation of a word, the idea of the motivational connection of a word with a word not related to the word-formation relationship under consideration, or with a word of another etymological nest. A change in motivation may be accompanied by a change in the meaning of the word and its structure (dial. packed"shaggy, unkempt")

However, a mandatory sign of the action of folk etymology is only a change in motivation, hence its other designations: remotivation, etymological reinterpretation. The presence of only changes in motivation - false etymology. The reason for folk etymology is often demotivation or an initial misunderstanding of motivation, this is especially evident when mastering borrowed words: colloquial. semi-clinic, semi-kindergarten(instead of front garden), nursery"picnic". The processes of demotivation and folk etymology are facilitated by phonetic changes in the word, obsolescence and loss of the generating word, and obsolescence of the word-formation model: shell(etymologically primary scorup), dial charming"chatty" (etymologically - from both, rethinking - by babble)

One of the types of folk etymology is the use, instead of a word whose motivation is unclear, of another word that is consonant and more familiar: colloquial. pole(instead of policy"insurance document"), dial. gingerbread(instead of slinger"washboard")

Therefore, another term for folk etymology is paronymic attraction. Folk etymology is also possible while maintaining the motivational transparency of the word (probably as a means of updating motivation): dial. borom(instead of windbreak, without changing the value)

Adj. folk etymological.

A brief conceptual and terminological reference book on etymology and historical lexicology. - Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Russian Language named after. V. V. Vinogradov RAS, Etymology and history of words in the Russian language. J. J. Varbot, A. F. Zhuravlev. 1998 .

See what “Folk etymology” is in other dictionaries:

Folk etymology is a false etymology, a lexical association that arises under the influence of vernacular, but later also accepted by the classical literary language. Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Re-decomposition ... Wikipedia

- (false etymology) understanding the morphological composition of the word and motivating its meaning based on convergence with consonant words that are different from it in origin (Russian vernacular semi-clinic instead of polyclinic) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (false etymology), understanding the morphological composition of the word and motivating its meaning based on convergence with consonant words that are different from it in origin (Russian colloquial “poluklinika” instead of “polyclinic”). * * * PEOPLE... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Reinterpretation of a word (borrowed or native), semantically unclear and not decomposable into meaningful parts, according to the model of a word of the native language that is close in sound, based on a purely external, random sound coincidence (colloquial... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Alteration and rethinking of a borrowed (less often native) word according to the model of a word of the native language that is close in sound, the establishment of semantic connections between them on the basis of a purely external, random sound coincidence, without taking into account real facts... Dictionary of linguistic terms

A new understanding of an old word or a word taken from a foreign language, associated with an erroneous understanding of its etymological composition, cf. the current understanding of the word “witness” as “eyewitness”, connecting this word with the verb “to see”, vm. old meaning... ... Literary encyclopedia

Books

Chuvash folk clothing. Ethnographic Dictionary, N.I. Zakharova-Kuleva. Chuvash folk clothing has been and remains one of the interesting and complex topics in Chuvash culture. It is so diverse and rich that it is difficult to remember everything correctly at once. Published…