misetymology

plural misetymologies

1. countableuncountablehuman sciencesIncorrect etymology.

   Floridelphia may be euphonious but it’s a bad case of misetymology. It is the name given to a town located in the extensive tract of Florida land purchased by the Disstons of the handsaw fame.

   1890 March 28, Kansas City Globe, quotee, The Overbrook Herald, volume I, number 51, Overbrook, Kan., →OCLC, front page, column 3

   2 more examples

   In the Institute itself, [Noah] Webster has a second sort of division, each page being divided roughly into two parts by a horizontal line, below which occur Webster’s misetymologies of particles—if comes from give, yet from get—along with sage observation.

   1970, Charlton Laird, “Goold Brown, Grammar, and the Little Red Schoolhouse”, in Language in America, New York, N.Y.: World Publishing Company, →ISBN, →LCCN, part III (American English Is Born), pages 296–297

   Let us not be falsely naive by aiming heavy cannon at the etymology "tsum esn." It was merely a groundless suggestion offered by someone who did not know the etymology accepted in Yiddish linguistic circles; by dint of repetition in the popular prints, "tsimes < tsum esn" has become accepted in unknowledgeable circles. We shall not waste any more time or space on this misetymology.

   1986, “Additions and Corrections to JLR 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5”, in Jewish Language Review, volume 6, Haifa: Association for the Study of Jewish Languages, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 400