misetymology

From mis- +‎ etymology.

misetymology (countable and uncountable, plural misetymologies)

1. (lexicography) Incorrect etymology.
   • 1890 March 28, Kansas City Globe, quotee, The Overbrook Herald, volume I, number 51, Overbrook, Kan., →OCLC, front page, column 3:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.