Why Are Fake Word Origins So Popular?

follow name it's been on Instagram Twitter and Tick Tock as well as joining my Facebook group friends of name explain where you can chat with myself and many other name nerds check out the links down below in medieval Britain there was a tradition when the king would hope court the tradition was that the Earls would always be the ones to arrive first they would get there before the king the Dukes the Barons and even all the spectators they would then set up to court light the candles plump the King's throne all that sort of stuff then way after them everyone else would turn up eventually people started to notice this fact people realized that Earls had this habit of arriving at the court way before everyone else and when other people in other parts of the country started to arrive at places before others it got compared to these Earls they were described as being erlike this eventually gave us the word of early to describe someone getting somewhere way before others much like an Earl of old England that's a pretty fun story to say the least and the neat origin of the word early I mean it would be a fun story it was true in any way whatsoever yeah that etymology of the word early I just completely made up interview quality the term of early comes from muddled Old English roots with their word of ear meaning sooner but that story is nowhere near as fun nevertheless stories like the one I just concocted ones that detail the interesting origin of words are prevalent across the globe whether they be stories shared among friends in pubs or at home or spread across social media in more modern instances these stories are then taken as fact and spread even deeper these kinds of stories are known as Folk etymologies and they can be kind of a nuisance to people who want to know the actual origin of words they're a nuisance for a few reasons firstly because they obscure the truth when it comes to the origin of these words and the last thing we need on our planet right now is more misinformation however a lot of these folk etymologies actually come from pretty unpleasant Origins many of them exist to reinforce negative ideas about a group of people which isn't great to say the least this has led to a huge surplus of folk etymologies on our planet some are so well known that they are taken as fact I wouldn't be surprised if I referenced a couple focus monologies in my own videos they are that entrenched so why do folk etymology spread so easily and why are they so popular despite not being true or well there's all kinds of reasons as to why this happens this video is heavily inspired by the wonderful book word myths by David Wilton the book goes through a huge selection of popular folk etymologies and explains where the myth comes from and the word or terms actual Origins it's a terrific book and if you're interested go read it in the conclusion of this book Wilton breaks down the reasons folk etymology spread so well into 10 categories so spoilers for the End of This Book I suppose the first of those being simply because they're good stories sometimes the focathomologies are such fun stories that we're just compelled to share them we humans love to share little fun facts there's an entire industry built on that concept with the likes of Qi Uber Facts and many YouTube channels like this one you are watching right now the early Focus etymology I just made up is a prime example of one that's just a good story but a more established example has to be the full etymology of the word news this is a story that news as in the thing that tells you what's going on in the world is actually an acronym of notable events weather and sports this isn't true at all it just comes from the fact it tells you about new things yet this is such a fun story that it has perpetuated into the public knowledge the next category Wilson says is that Focus emojis can strengthen and validate group identity a great example of this is with the folk etymology for the name of America the name of course comes from the Italian explorer Emilio Vespucci who was the one that realized that the landmass was not part of Asia and in turn had the land named after him one focus on watch about the name was perpetuated by one Jules markow in 1875 in an article he proclaimed that the name it came from Native American Roots deriving from the AmeriCU mountains slash people of Nicaragua this of course isn't true but a folk etymology like this can give Pride to the indigenous as people of the land with the idea that the land has a name coming from one of their languages and wasn't simply a name imported from Europe it's a fun story but like many cases simply isn't true sometimes however the opposite of this happens Focus homologies can come into being to reinforce negative racist and xenophobic ideas about others as Wilton puts it these Origins aren't great to say the least but unfortunately people have used faux etymologies to get their agendas across an example being a folk etymology for Chicago's nickname The Windy City supposedly editor of the New York Sun Charles Darner coined the term Windy City for Chicago in 1890 and the wind was a reference to all the hot air that people of the city blew were this of course isn't true but the etymology spread across New York and then the world spurred on by the Rivalry between the two cities people enjoy making up mean stuff about people they don't like this can even be done through folk etymology in reality has that name because it's in fact rather windy in the city another reason why Focus homologies can spread according to Wilton is because they appeal to our interests this is especially the case with food etymologies that relate to sailing and the Sea there are so many words that quote unquote derive from Sailors on the sea these kind of fake stories spread so much because a lot of people are intrigued by the Sea so like the fact that many words and terms derive from their area of Interest take the term under the weather there's a story that it relates to Sailors who are unhappy caught in storms and wanted to be underneath all that bad weather while this makes sense it isn't the case at all seemingly its actual Origins have nothing to do with the sea but was quite simply due to the fact that bad weather can affect someone's Health Wooten Nick says that a reason a focus on what you can spread is because they serve a political purpose this can be pretty unpleasant too like with the folk etymology for the term rule of thumb the folk etymology behind this term is that it comes from an old British bylaw that allowed men to beat their wives with a whip or stick that was no wider than their thumb this is awful simply put and the term has no links to wife beating it simply cost me fun being a unit of measurement like we use feet and hands yet this fake story in regards to the origin of the term serves something of a dark political purpose somewhat promoting the idea that it's okay to beat your wife because there's a term that relates to it this kind of folk ethology can also turn to another category Walton lays out that being the idea that folk etymologies spread to Lampoon the high and mightier while this rule of thumb etymology can be seen to survey political purpose it could also be used by opponents of the idea to point out how awful people in power can be another folk etymology like this is with golf golf is seen as a sport for the higher classes of society and people have mocked this fact with the folk etymology that golf is once again an acronym which means gentlemen only ladies forbidden this isn't where golf comes from at all it's thought to come from an Old Dutch word meaning club or bat yet this folketomology can be seen as mocking the kind of people who play golf and their mentality golf as well as the aforementioned news folk etymology are things referred to as acronyms this is where we retroactively turn a word into an acronym they could honestly have a video onto themselves one day a more Niche reason why folk etymology spread according to Walton is that they serve an economic purpose this means that sometimes they can explain why business is a certain thing in regards to their language a famous example of this is with the Chevrolet Nova there's a story that this card didn't sell well in Latin America because the latter word can be read in Spanish as meaning no go and no one really wants a car that has a name meaning it doesn't go so it instead it changed its name to the career but this simply isn't true a Chevrolet never actually change the car's name in Latin America and the car called The Carib was instead made by Volkswagen yet this faux hemology is used as an example of bad marketing despite the fact it never happened another reason why they can spread according to Wilton is that Focus morities can attempt to promote euphemism ascribing socially acceptable terms to unseemly words and phrases this means sometimes people try and use made-up Origins that justify the use of a word considered taboo a really notable example of this is with a certain word starting with f The Story Goes that this word is an acronym meaning fornication under consent of the king supposedly people at some point could only reproduce with permission from the King this of course isn't true and that word didn't come from these Origins but it could be used to explain that this word isn't as taboo as it is seen as being by some Wilton then lays out that sometimes a faux etymologies are made as deliberate hoaxes as well as being examples of wordplay done for humor this is simply because people like to make up fun stories sometimes there was a notorious example of this in the early days of the internet with an email chain called life in the 1500s this email train explained the origin of a ton of different phrases like how the term reigning cats and dogs relates to pets falling off the roof in a storm or how the term bring home the bacon comes from people hanging bacon on their walls to show off their wealth nothing in this email is true yet because they were so fun and people didn't fact check them they were spurred on during the early days of the web as truth in reality these are just concocted as a bit of fun the final reason Walton lays out is that these folk etymologies can explain a mystery to us due to the very nature of language we don't know the origin of every word and term including some we use every day so people have made up folk etymologies about these kinds of words to help fill a void a great example is with the word okay we only figured out the true or version of the term okay in the 1960s being that it comes from Boston in the late 19th century from a fad in the city of making up strange abbreviations prior to this there were all kinds of theories with the most popular of those being that President Andrew Jackson once misspelled all correct as all correct and it stemmed from that so I'm sure you can understand now that faux etymologies can spread for all kinds of different reasons sometimes it's for quite nefarious reasons and other times it's simply for a bit of fun so next time you see a word origin that seems a bit too fun or a bit dubious take it with caution whoever it is from including from this dumb YouTube channel also if you haven't got the idea go read David Wilton's Burke they haven't paid me to promote it or anything it's just a really good book and this video wouldn't exist in this form without it this video topic was suggested by Mimi heart over my patreon every Wednesday I put up a video request post over my patreon on for my awesome patrons to leave video ideas on I then pick one of those ideas to be turned into a video the following Wednesday so if you have a great idea for name explain video and wish to enjoy name explain videos ad free as well as get exclusive content and your name at the end of these videos then why not support the channel on patreon it takes 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Channel: Name Explain

Views: 23,254

Keywords: Name Explain, Etymology, Word Origins, Educational Video, Folk Etymology

Id: 7Z8Zyd4cpkc

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 26 2023