Editing False etymology (section)

{{Short description|Popular, but false belief about word origins}}
{{About|false theories of word origins|word change through popular usage|folk etymology}}
A '''false etymology''' ('''fake etymology''' or '''pseudo-etymology''') is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a '''folk etymology''' (or '''popular etymology''').<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rundblad |first1=Gabriella |last2=Kronenfeld |first2=David B. |date=2003-01-01 |title=The inevitability of folk etymology: a case of collective reality and invisible hands |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216602000590 |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=119–138 |doi=10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00059-0 |issn=0378-2166|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nevertheless, [[Folk etymology|folk/popular etymology]] may also refer to the process by which a word or phrase is changed because of a popular false etymology. To disambiguate the usage of the term "folk/popular etymology", [[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]] proposes a clear-cut distinction between the '''derivational-only popular etymology''' ('''DOPE''') and the [[generative popular etymology]] (GPE): the DOPE refers to a popular false etymology involving no [[neologization]], and the GPE refers to neologization generated by a popular false etymology.<ref name="Zuckerman20032">{{cite book |last=Zuckermann |first=Ghil'ad |url=http://www.palgrave.com/br/book/9781403917232 |title=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2003 |isbn=978-1403917232 |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann}}</ref>

Such [[etymology|etymologies]] often have the feel of [[urban legend]]s and can be more colorful and fanciful than the typical etymologies found in dictionaries, often involving stories of unusual practices in particular subcultures (e.g. Oxford students from non-noble families being supposedly forced to write ''sine nobilitate'' by their name, soon abbreviated to ''s.nob.'', hence the word ''[[Wikt:snob|snob]]'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/22147/etymology-of-snob |title=nouns – Etymology of "snob" |publisher=English Language & Usage Stack Exchange |access-date=2013-08-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-snob |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230013936/http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/what-is-the-origin-of-the-word-snob |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 30, 2011 |title=What is the origin of the word 'snob'?  |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries Online |date=2013-08-21 |access-date=2013-08-26}}</ref>