A fake etymology, is an invented explanation (etymology) for the origin of a word. Many vulgar words in particular have been subject to such invented etymologies, most of which have very recent 20th century origins. Sometimes, these etymologies are then propagated through the culture by others, either because they were taken seriously by mistake, or simply because they enjoyed the joke and wanted to pass it along. Fake etymologies — constructed accounts of a word or phrase's history which are incorrect — should be distinguished from other kinds of false etymology such as folk etymology. In historical linguistics, etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Cultural studies developed in the late 20th century, in part through the re-introduction of Marxist thought into sociology, and in part through the articulation of sociology and other academic disciplines such as literary criticism. ... A joke is a short story or short series of words spoken or communicated with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the listener or reader. ... A false etymology or pseudo-etymology is an assumed or postulated etymology which is incorrect from the perspective of modern scholarly work in historical linguistics. ... Folk etymology (or popular etymology) is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ...

Examples

• F.U.C.K. (for fuck). This fake etymology suggests that the term "fuck" originated as an acronym, standing for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge". According to this etymology, adulterers in medieval England would be charged with the crime of unlawful carnal knowledge. After a while the charge was shortened on the charge sheet to "F.U.C.K.", and so the term came to mean the act of adultery. There are a number of variations on this theme - the same acronym was posted on stocks where adulterers were publicly humiliated. Another variation suggests that F.U.C.K stands for "Fornication Under Consent of the King", supposedly posted on the doors of those permitted to reproduce at a time of medieval population control, or to indicate that a brothel had paid its tax and was licensed to operate. These etymologies are clearly false: acronyms were not widely used before the 20th century, and "fuck" derives from Old English.

• "Fuck you". There is also the one about the archers who had their middle fingers removed in medieval times to keep them from properly aiming their arrows; however; they would defiantly raise their mangled hands to the enemy and claim they could still "pluck yew". English longbow archers caught by the enemy at Agincourt would supposedly have their bow fingers amputated, since at that time the longbow was a devastating weapon, giving great advantage to the English. Unaffected archers would taunt the enemy by raising two fingers to show they were still intact - the "V-sign" survives to this day as an insulting gesture. This is, however, an untrue story.

• Pommy, an Australian slang term for a person of British descent or origin. The true origins of the term remain obscure, but a common fake etymology suggests that the term arises from the acronym P.O.M.E, for "Prisoner of Mother England" (sometimes P.O.H.M, "Prisoners Of Her Majesty"), which term was supposedly used on documentation accompanying English convicts transported to Australia.

• Canada. There is a story that it was actually the Spanish who first discovered Canada, but in winter. Upon fixing their telescope on the frozen land, and being asked what he saw, one explorer, not wanting to make landfall replied 'Ca nada'.

• S.H.I.T. (for shit). This fake etymology suggests that the origin of the term "shit" traces back to the farming industry. Dried manure was transported via ship. Often times it would be shipped in the lowest holds of the ship, the remoteness of these sections was ideal for concealing the smell. The wooden boats were prone to minor leakage. The manure would become damp and begin expelling methane. On occasion this methane buildup was set into an explosive charge by deck hands going into the holds with lit lanterns. Once it had finally been figured out what caused the accidents all manure packages going on board were required to be labelled "Ship High In Transit" which was later abbreviated to S.H.I.T.

• California from 'Cali', as in 'caliente, calor' -hot in Spanish, calories, etc. and 'fornia' as in fornicate. Thus California allegedly used to be called Tierra de la California, the land of hot sex. (So as to not leave the origins of the name in doubt, California was the name of an island of Amazons in Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo's Las Sergas de Esplandián, The Voyages of Esplandián, a romance popular at the time of the region's discovery. See Origin of the name California.)

• G.O.L.F. (for golf). The fake etymology for the word was that it was an acronym for "Gentlemen Only; Ladies Forbidden". However, the word golf is over 500 years old. In the oldest Scottish writings, the word was spelled gouff, goiff, goffe, goff, gowff, and golph. The acronym cannot be formed with any of those spellings, and furthermore, the development of the acronym in the English language is mostly a 20th century phenomenon, perhaps as a backronym.

• The fake etymology for the word news claims that it is an acronym of the four cardinal directions (North, East, West, and South). However, old spellings of the word varied widely—newesse, newis, nevis, neus, newys, niewes, newis, nues, etc.

• P.O.S.H. (for posh). Port Out, Starboard Home; port supposedly being the side of the ship (and starboard on the return journey) having the best cabins when sailing between the UK and India.

• Welsh Rarebit. This supposedly original spelling of the British cheese-on-toast snack, pronounced and normally spelled 'Welsh rabbit', presumably indicates that it is a 'rare bit' - an undercooked, or perhaps occasional, morsel?

Fuck is a strong and generally provocative expletive in Modern English and is one of the most well-known vulgarisms in the English-speaking world. ... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ... England is a made up country where psychologists convince schitzofrenic people they are currently living while they are in fact in a mental asylum. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... A longbow is a type of bow that is tall (roughly equal to or greater than the height of a person), is not recurved, and has relatively narrow limbs circular or D shaped in cross section. ... Agincourt can refer to: an alternative name for Azincourt, a commune of the Pas-de-Calais département in northern France, and the site of the Battle of Agincourt Agincourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle a commune of the Meurthe_et_Moselle département in northeastern France Agincourt, Ontario The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415. ... Australian English is the form of the English language used in Australia. ... Shit is a vernacular word in Modern English denoting the feces, the solid byproduct of digestion. ... Farming, ploughing rice paddy, in Indonesia Agriculture is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products by cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). ... The temperature of manure rises as it decomposes, giving off steam and a characteristic odor. ... Italian ship-rigged vessel Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft, sometimes with multiple decks. ... The simplest hydrocarbon, methane, is a gas with a chemical formula of CH4. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... The toponym California is currently used by three subnational entities – the U.S. state of California and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur – and by a string of cities in other parts of the English-speaking world. ... Golfer teeing off at the start of a hole Golf is an outdoor sport where individual players or teams hit a small ball into a hole using various clubs. ... A backronym or bacronym is a reversed acronym. ... News is essentially new information or current events. ... A compass rose showing the cardinal directions Cardinal directions or cardinal points are the four principal directions or points of the compass in plane. ... Compass rose with north highlighted and at top North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the primary direction: north is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions; the (visual) top edges of maps usually correspond to the... A compass rose with east highlighted East is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. ... A compass rose with west highlighted This article refers to the cardinal direction; for other uses see West (disambiguation). ... A compass rose with South highlighted South is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. ... POSH: a Swiss Rock-Band. ... Welsh rabbit is a snack dish, also known as toasted cheese or (by folk etymology) Welsh rarebit. ...

Fake eponyms

• Asphalt – Leopold von Asphalt
• Avocado – Jorge-Luis Avocado
• Brassiere or Bra - Otto Titzling (this one propagated by the original edition of Trivial Pursuit and the movie Beaches)
• Buffet – Pierre-Alphonse Buffet
• Bugle – Hereward Bugle
• Cabaret – Antoine de Cabaret
• Comma – Domenico da Comma
• Corset – Etienne Corset
• Curry – Sir George Curry
• Ketchup – Noah Ketchup
• Lager beer – Gottfried Lager
• Liter – Claude Émile Jean-Bapiste Litre
• Marmalade – João Marmalado
• the word nasty – Thomas Nast [1]
• Salon – Marquise Henriette de Salon
• Crap – Earl Crapper (The flush toilet was indeed popularised to a large extent by an Englishman named Thomas Crapper, though the coincidence of his surname is, sadly for some, only that - a coincidence. The slang term 'crap' for faeces, or to defecate, was in common use long before this time).

Two eponyms that are true, however: the sandwich was named for the Earl of Sandwich, and the napoleon pastry for Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France. An eponym is a person, whether real or fictitious, whose name has (or is thought to have) given rise to the name of a particular place, tribe, discovery, or other item. ... Asphalt is a type of bitumen, a highly viscous liquid that occurs naturally in most crude petroleums. ... Binomial name Persea americana Mill. ... An orange brassiere. ... Trivial Pursuit is a popular party game. ... A Chinese buffet restaurant in the U.S. A buffet is a meal-serving system where patrons serve themselves. ... The word bugle has two different meanings: A brass musical instrument, seeBugle (instrument) An often cultivated lamiaceae, Bugle (plant) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... The term comma has various uses; comma is the name used for one of the punctuation symbols: , The term comma is also used in music theory for various small intervals that arise as differences between approximately equal intervals. ... Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Corset Hourglass corset from around 1880. ... An Indian chicken curry A curry is any of a great variety of distinctively spiced dishes, best-known in Indian and Thai cuisine, but found in many other countries. ... Organic Ketchup, a 21st century condiment Ketchup (or catsup) is a popular condiment, usually made with ripened tomatoes. ... Lager beers are alcoholic beverages of German and Czech origin, taking their name from the German lagern (to store). Lagers are brewed principally from malted barley (without cane sugar, an adjunct), hops and water at low temperatures (usually between 5°C and 15°C) that cause bottom-fermentation. ... The litre (or liter in US) is a metric unit of volume. ... Marmalade is a sweet conserve made from fruit, sugar, and (usually) a gelling agent. ... Thomas Nast (September 27, 1840–December 7, 1902) was a famous caricaturist and editorial cartoonist in the 19th century and is considered to be the father of American political cartooning. ... Salon may refer to: a room in a house used for receiving guests. ... Thomas Crapper. ... Rabbit feces are usually 0. ... American deli sandwiches An italian sandwich The sandwich is a food item typically consisting of two slices of bread between which are laid one or more layers of meat, cheese, or other filling, together with optional or traditionally provided condiments, sauces, and other accompaniments. ... John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (3 November 1718 – 3 April 1792) succeeded his grandfather, Edward, the 3rd Earl, in the earldom in 1729. ... The Napoleon is a pastry made of many layers of puff pastry with filling alternating the layers. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français...

Urban legend etymologies

Some fake etymologies have become urban legends, many of which allege a scandalous origin for a common and innocent word. One common example has to do with the phrase rule of thumb, meaning a rough measurement; the width of adult male thumb is roughly one inch. An urban legend has it that the phrase refers to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. [2] Interestingly enough, the phrase "rule of thumb" is known in Finland (which is a Metric country) as "nyrkkisääntö" (rule of fist); the width of adult male fist is roughly ten centimeters) - certain Feminists have interpreted a man has legally been allowed to beat his wife with his fists but not with a weapon. Urban legends are a kind of folklore consisting of stories often thought to be factual by those circulating them (see rumor). ... A rule of thumb is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination. ... Feminism is a diverse collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies, largely motivated by or concerning the experiences of women, especially in terms of their social, political, and economic situation. ...

In the United States, many of these scandalous fake etymologies have had to do with racism and slavery. Common words such as picnic [3], buck [4], and crowbar [5] have been alleged to stem from derogatory terms or racist practices. The 'discovery' of these alleged etymologies is often believed by those who circulate them to draw attention to racist attitudes embedded in ordinary discourse. On one occasion the use of the word niggardly led to the resignation of a US public official because it sounded similar to the word nigger. A black man drinks out of a water fountain designated for black people in 1939 at a streetcar terminal. ... The Buxton Memorial Fountain, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon, celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire in 1834, erected in Victoria Tower Gardens, Millbank, Westminster, London. ... Look up niggardly in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Look up niggard in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Look up nigger in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Niggardly is a word synonymous with stingy and miserly, and a niggard (noun) is a miser. ... The word nigger is an extremely controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia (but also in other countries where English is known such as Germany, specifically) to refer to individuals of Black heritage, especially those of African descent who previously...

See also

• Backronym
• Folk etymology
• Okay
• Chinese Translation of Crisis

A backronym or bacronym is a reversed acronym. ... Folk etymology (or popular etymology) is a linguistic term for a category of false etymology which has grown up in popular lore as opposed to one which arose in scholarly usage. ... Okay is a term of approval or assent, often written as OK, , ok, or even just k. ... While there is ambiguity present in any translation, the translation of the Mandarin word weiji (危機) has proven particularly controversial. ...

External link

• Common errors in popular Etymology (wordorigins.org)
• "Spook etymology on the Internet" by Richard Lederer