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 fine 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, 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, because 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
- (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
- (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)
- (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
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
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…
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 tavern seller, who sold in a tavern, poured a few drops from each glass of wine he sold into a special vessel, 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 is spelled with an “e” in the “Spelling Dictionary” of the USSR Academy of Sciences! 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.
Folk etymology as a folk interpretation of words
V.A. Chudinov
I have long wanted to consider the understanding of folk etymology by different linguists and find out why they took etymology beyond the framework of folk culture. In many articles I have touched upon this problem in passing, but now it is time to discuss it as a main one.
Definition. « 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. Alteration and rethinking of a borrowed (less often native) word according to the model of a word in the native language that is close in sound to it, but which differs from it in origin. For example: “semi-clinic” instead of “polyclinic”, “melkoskop” instead of “microscope”, “mukhlazh” instead of “dummy”, “gulvar” instead of “boulevard” (comparison with the verb “walk”), “semi-garden” instead of “front garden”, “palisade” (French palissade - palisade, plank fence, fence, hedge), “buyer” instead of “speculator” (comparison with the verb “to buy”), etc. An example of rethinking is the combination “raspberry ringing” (in meaning “pleasant, harmonious ringing of bells”), associated with the name of the berry. In fact, it goes back to the name of the Belgian city of Malin (Mechelen), where there is an ancient cathedral, which has a special school of bell-ringers, a kind of “Malinovsky” bell musicians"(Wikipedia).
« An explanation of the origin of words that does not correspond to their actual history. Unlike scientific etymology, folk etymology is based not on the laws of language development, but on the random similarity of words. An example is the word “kipish”, often used in youth slang, meaning vanity, disorder, scandal. It comes from Yiddish and, accordingly, has nothing to do with boiling from an etymological point of view"(OTK).
I have noted several times that folk etymology can also be present in the works of scientists. Yu.V. also mentions this. Taxpayers, professor at Leningrad State University: “ For example, back in the 18th century, academician and philologist V.K. Trediakovsky wrote that the name of the ancient inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula, Iberians, is a distorted word for Upera, since, due to their geographical location, they are surrounded by seas on all sides. Britain, according to Trediakovsky, is a distorted word of Brotherhood (from the word brother), Scythians are monasteries (from the word wander), Turks are from yurki (compare nimble, fast, agile), etc. Consequently, here we are faced with “folk etymology” at the highest (academic!) level (however, we must take into account that this is the level of the Russian academy, which in those days was generally in a “childish”, to say the least, state - author’s note site). And the people have nothing to do with it at all. It’s just that at the time of Trediakovsky, etymology had not yet been formed as a science, and this provided wide scope for all kinds of unbridled fantasies».
This allows the colleague to make an interesting conclusion: “ The very term “folk etymology” is not entirely appropriate. Firstly, it shows a somewhat disdainful attitude towards the people, who for many centuries were cut off from the development of science. Secondly (and this is the most important thing), a significant part of the “folk etymologies” did not arise in the folk environment at all. Instead of the term “folk etymology,” some scientists prefer to use the expressions “false etymology” and “naive etymology.” But these terms are even less successful. Firstly, scientific etymology can be false.... Secondly, naive etymology does not have to be false... In addition, naivety is a quality that can sometimes distinguish scientific etymology. Of course, “folk etymology” is usually false, but not every false etymology is “folk” at the same time. This is why one of these terms cannot be replaced by another."(OTK).
Search for more precise definitions. « In scientific, popular science literature, textbooks on the Russian language, reference books, when it comes to etymology, examples are given that qualify as phenomena of folk etymology, children's etymology, erroneous, or false, etymology. At the same time, similar facts are often called differently, and facts that are different in nature are considered identical. In this regard, it is necessary to clarify both the concepts themselves and the terms that call them. Let's start with the concept of “folk etymology”.
The boundaries of folk etymology as a special linguistic phenomenon remain so vague to this day that this term, introduced by the German linguist Ferssmann in the middle of the last century, denotes a number of heterogeneous phenomena, starting with phonetic changes in the word (assimilation, dissimilation, haplology, etc.) and ending 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. Krushevsky, Yu. V. Otkupshchikov, L. Yu. Maksimova and others."(OTK).
« The content of the term itself is also interpreted differently. Its numerous definitions, presented in the works of various researchers, can be combined and reduced to the following 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 vols.) 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: “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.”
Paronymic attraction is also not a completely accurate term, but it grates on the ear with its special “learnedness.” There is no doubt that there is attraction, that is, the attraction of different forms of lexemes in an attempt to comprehend them, but whether in this case we are always dealing with paronymy and not with other lexical changes is a question.
« Scientists have made attempts to classify words associated with folk etymology. Yes, academician N. S. Derzhavin, considering folk etymology in his article, identified three main types of it. The first type is, as the author points out, “a simple apperception of a foreign word, which... is subject, however, to a certain processing in the sense of being closer to the familiar native word: gulvar, nebel, 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 to be “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 they do not understand... trying to reveal the real meaning of a word they do not understand.”
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 not related to etymology, predetermines the need for a different approach to the issue».
A different approach. Many forms of popular culture differ greatly from their academic counterparts. So, for example, Russian folk singing is distinguished by a different method of sound production, a certain “direct” sound, which the classical “bel canto” avoids. The folk toy is not at all realistic small plastic sculptures, but highly stylized sculptures. As for fairy tales, no one looks for the real history of their country in them. " A fairy tale is a genre of literary creativity:
1) A folk tale is an epic genre of oral folk art: a prosaic oral story about fictional events in the folklore of different peoples. A type of narrative, mostly prosaic folklore (fairy-tale prose), which includes works of different genres, the texts of which are based on fiction. Fairytale folklore is opposed to “reliable” folklore narration (non-fairytale prose) (see myth, epic, historical song, spiritual poems, legend, demonological stories, tale, legend, epic).
2) Literary fairy tale - epic genre: a fiction-oriented work, closely related to a folk fairy tale, but, unlike it, belongs to a specific author, did not exist in oral form before publication and had no variants. A literary fairy tale either imitates a folk tale (a literary fairy tale written in a folk poetic style) or creates a didactic work (see didactic literature) based on non-folklore plots. Folklore tale historically precedes literary"(Wikipedia).
Why not, by analogy, declare “folk etymology” a genre of linguistic creativity of the people? People create new words, but people also change borrowed words. He has every right to do this. Another thing is that to some extent he invades the field of activity that linguists have reserved for themselves. But folk linguistic creativity is much older and can do without the intervention of linguists. It also exists among those small nations where their own linguistics does not yet exist at all. So, just as linguistics describes folk word formation (attributing it, however, not to the people, but to “language” as an independent entity that in their abstractions can exist outside the people), it must also describe folk word formation (not in terms of agreement with in other words, in the context of speech, as morphology, and extra-textually).
But as soon as we consider “folk word production” a genre of linguistic folk art, we immediately derive it from such a form of social consciousness as science. And if this is not science, then it is not “etymology” as a specific scientific direction. And the argument between Mikhail Zadornov and Viktor Zhivov on the program “Gordon-Quixote vs. Mikhail Zadornov” turns out to be completely pointless. Persons involved in folk word production never pursue the goal of restoring the true history of a particular word; they simply master it from the point of view of phonetics, word formation and semantics of their language.
For example, in Germany there is a city founded by the Slavs, named Sagittarius. But according to the rules of German phonetics, the sound “S” before “T” should be pronounced as “Ш”, and according to the rules of accentuation, the stress should fall not on the last, but on the first syllable. And quite naturally the Germans called this city Strelitz. And when in the 18th century the wooden houses burned down in a fire and the city was rebuilt, New Strelets began to be called not in Slavic, but in German as Neustrelitz. Here none of the Germans found out the history of this word, but simply began to pronounce it according to the rules of the German language. Therefore, it is impossible to say that we are dealing with folk “etymology”.
And when a Russian person first hears the expression “raspberry ringing,” he understands that sounds can be spoken of in terms of colors, and this is very poetic. At the same time, he does not care at all about any Belgian city of Malin (Mechelen). For he starts from the realities of the Russian language, and not at all from Belgian place names, which he, of course, does not know. And the explanations of etymological scientists will not help him in any way. On the contrary, they will even ruin the charm of the raspberry-colored ringing image!
And words like gulvar, nebel, nekrut, miroder, skupiliant are a masterpiece of presenting a foreign word as a Russian word with a clear meaning. Not every professional satirist is able to use words like this boulevard, furniture, recruit, looter and speculator. This is word production of the first type according to N.S. Derzhavin. And again, there is no hint of the origin of the word, only its interpretation is presented, that is, “simple apperception.”
The second type of word production affects words, parts of which fully or partially correspond to Russian words. For example, in the word “frolic” one can distinguish both “chickens” and “forest”, in the word “front garden” - the words “fire” and “garden”, in the word “catavasia” - the words “cat” and “Vaska”. Therefore, new semantics follows from the semantics of Russian words. Here, in the opinion of a Russian-speaking person, the only thing that is not entirely clear is the unexpected combination of two supposedly well-understood meanings.
Examples of the third type border on true legends and should be considered separately.
Inflection as myth-making. I borrow examples from another article by the same Otkupshchikov. " Where did the name of the city Kolomna come from? They say that Father Sergius once blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy not far from this city. After the blessing, Father Sergius headed into the city, but for some reason the residents drove him away and even threatened him with stakes. “I treat them kindly, but they stake me (me),” Sergius later complained. From this stake the name Kolomna was given to the city.
Another equally fantastic example of this type is the “etymology” of the name of the river and the city of Samara. According to legend, a small river ran from east to west, and from the north the mighty river Ra (the ancient name of the Volga River) rushed its waves across it. “Move aside! - the big river shouts to the small river, - make way for me: after all, I am Ra!
“And I myself am Ra,” the river answers calmly and continues its run to the west.
Two streams collided with each other - and the majestic river Ra gave way to its small rival: it, too, was forced to turn its flow to the west. From the words Ra itself received the name of the Samara River, and at the site of the collision it formed the Volga-Ra Samara bow (bend).
In a similar way, folk etymology tried to explain, for example, the names of the rivers Yakhroma and Vorskla. The first name was allegedly obtained from the exclamation of the wife of Prince Yuri Dolgoruky, who, while crossing this river, twisted her leg and exclaimed “I am lame!” The legend associates the second name with the name of Peter 1. Looking through a telescope, the king dropped the lens into the water. Attempts to find “glass” (sklo) were unsuccessful. Since then, the river began to be called Vor skla (“thief of glass”).
Of course, all these legends have nothing to do with the actual origin of the corresponding toponyms. But they are important in another way. The examples considered show how closely folk etymology is connected with oral folk art - folklore. Many tales and legends arose in a similar way - as a result of attempts at etymological understanding of incomprehensible words and names».
We see that in the third type some “historical” details are invented: the wife of Yuri Dolgoruky, the loss of a lens by Peter the Great, a dispute between rivers. In other words, instead of a simple “play on words,” a genuine mythologeme is unfolding before us.
Now the position of Mikhail Zadornov, who reproduces a number of mythologies, becomes understandable: the word “hurray” supposedly consists of completely understandable words: the preposition “U” and the name of his own god “RA” (the reverse reading of the name AR-YAR), the word “culture” supposedly consists of words " cult of Ra" This is an observation of our great satirist, and not his own creativity. He also gives examples of the first type, when the listener does not quite understand the meaning of a foreign word, for example, the word “supermarket” is perceived simply as a “store”, and not as a “super-market”. In this case, this grammarian calmly calls a tiny tent in one of the cities of Russia a “supermarket.”
Zadornov often goes beyond examples of word production and gives examples of incorrect elliptical constructions, which are used by people who are not very knowledgeable in the Russian language, for example, dumplings " from my grandmother's meat" instead of " prepared according to my grandmother's recipes" Naturally, this causes a comic effect.
Understanding of the term by Western colleagues. I repeat, to criticize a satirist from the standpoint of science for reproducing funny mythologies is as absurd as criticizing the fairytale beginning “in the distant kingdom, in the thirtieth state, there lived King Dodon.” There really was no such kingdom either in Rus', or in Europe, or in Asia. And there was no such king. But historians remain silent, and rightly so - it is not their problem to expose such mythologies. And linguists have put themselves in a ridiculous position, and all because the term Volksetymologie itself is incorrect. The German version of Wikipedia writes about this: “ Der Begriff der Volksetymologie wurde Mitte des 19.Jahrhunderts mit dem Aufsatz Ueber deutsche volksetymologie, erschienen 1852 in der Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete des Deutschen, Griechischen und Lateinischen, von Ernst Förstemann geprägt" It means: " The concept of folk etymology was introduced by Ernst Förstermann in 1852 under the title "On German Folk Etymology" in the journal Research in the Comparative Linguistics of German Greek and Latin».
I draw the reader’s attention to the fact that my colleague Yu.V. The farmers passed on Förstermann's surname as Fersman. It's probably simple forgetfulness. I will also note that in the German interpretation of the term itself there is not a word about the falsity or fallacy of “folk etymology”. It says this: “ INei einer Volksetymologie(Paretymologie) handelt es sich um einen historischen Wortbildungsprozess, bei dem ein unbekanntes Wort (meist Fremdwort) nach dem Vorbild eines vertraut klingenden Wortes in die Nehmersprache eingegliedert wird. Hierbei kann sowohl der Wortkörper phonologisch verändert werden, als auch durch das Mittel der Analogie eine phantasievolle Neubildung eintreten" That is: " Under folk etymology(paraetymology) we are talking about the process of historical word formation, in which an unknown word (most often of a foreign language) is divided according to the model of a familiar-sounding word of the borrowing language. In this case, it is possible to change both the body of the word and its meaning given to it through analogy during a fantastic new formation»
An interesting term “paraetymology” is also introduced here. And in the English version of this Wikipedia article, the following indication is even introduced: “ This article is about a technical term in linguistics. For incorrect popular etymologies, see false etymology" That is: " This article deals with a technical term in linguistics. For incorrect popular etymologies, see the term "false etymology"" In other words, the concepts of “folk” and “false” etymologies are separated here. For English-speaking linguists, “folk etymology” and “false etymology” are different concepts. The term “folk etymology” itself is explained as follows: “ Folk etymology is change in a word or phrase over time resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. Unanalyzable borrowings from foreign languages, like asparagus, or old compounds such as samblind which have lost their iconic motivation (since one or more of the morphemes making them up, like sam-, which meant "semi-", has become obscure) are reanalyzed in a more or less semantically plausible way, yielding, in these examples, sparrow grass and sandblind" Or in other words: " Folk etymology is a change in time of a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unknown form by a known one. Undivided borrowings from foreign languages, like the word “asparagus”, or ancient phrases like the word “samblind", which have lost their apparent original motivation (since one or more of its constituent morphemes, such assam-, which means "semi-", have become invisible) are re-divided semantically in a more or less acceptable way, leading to the meaning of "passerine grass, asparagus" and "sand blind" instead of "half-blind, subblind».
So, German colleagues, the authors of the term, and their English-speaking colleagues DO NOT CONSIDER “folk etymology to be false. Like paronyms, they think of this phenomenon as PARETYMOLOGY, that is, “parallel etymology,” etymology based not on the meaning of a given word in foreign languages, but on the correspondence of a given word to the laws of their language. Of course, such an etymology may be false, but that is not its main meaning. It is clear that the well-known houseplant asparagus with small elongated leaves resembling dill has nothing in common with asparagus. But the very phenomenon of folk interpretation is inherent in both German and English, and indeed any language in the world.
Now, based on this understanding, and returning to the defenders of the supposedly “scientific” point of view, Viktor Markovich Zhivov and the host of the program, Gordon, it can be noted that they are by no means amateurs, and should have known (due to their duty and the intention of the television program) Western understanding of the term “folk etymology”. So the identification of folk etymology with false etymology (which is enshrined in the Russian version of Wikipedia) is in itself a lie and a deviation from science, a kind of scientific fiction, PARETYMOLOGY of this term. Certainly, if you mix it up and the name of the author of the term, and its meaning, you can criticize your opponents, speaking very scientifically in the eyes of ignorant readers. But in the eyes of colleagues, such falsification will only cause condemnation and rejection. This is what happened as a result of the program “Gordon-Quixote vs. Zadornov.” She was supported only by “wonderologists” who (for a fee, of course) are ready to see victory everywhere instead of their defeat. They ignored the responses of readers, the expression “Gordon Darned,” which appeared in one of the articles as a response to the program, and the absence of at least one positive response to it from famous linguists.
In other words, in that television program filmed on Channel One on July 1, 2009, the criticism of folk etymologies collected by the satirist Zadornov was carried out FROM A FALSE POSITION. In other words, this was not scientific criticism, but a pre-planned cynical attack on the promoter of Russian folk art, moreover, arranged in such a way that the object of the false accusation and his defenders were practically not given the opportunity to respond. It is clear that the attack on the Russian patriot by people for whom Russian culture was alien failed miserably, and it could not have been otherwise!
- (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 the motivational connection of a word with 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...