Some well|known etymologies are too good to be true

Some well-known etymologies are too good to be true - The Economist

Some well-known etymologies are too good to be true. But lots of genuine ones are fascinating and entertaining.

What's some of the most interesting etymology that you know of, in ...

The word beam comes from the proto-Germanic for tree. Other Germanic cognates still mean tree, but in English it's had a true roller coaster of ...

The Economist on X: "Why is “salary” derived from the Latin for “salt ...

... and very probably wrong. Some well-known etymologies are too good to be true. From economist.com · 7:30 PM · Feb 3, 2023. ·. 51.2K. Views. 14. Reposts.

What are the best known etymologies of English words ... - Quora

I joke among friends that I formulated a rule of linguistics: Seth's Law of Philology. “The historical accuracy of a purported etymology is ...

The Interesting Etymologies of 71 Everyday Words - Mental Floss

” The modern meaning of fact, something known to be true ... This next word has a pretty well-known etymology, but it's too good to omit from this ...

meaning - Is it true that etymology is the leading tool to understand ...

The etymological fallacy is a genetic fallacy that holds that the present-day meaning of a word or phrase should necessarily be similar to its historical ...

The Stories Behind The Most Common English Folk Etymologies

One of the tell-tale signs of a folk etymology is that it's a very appealing story. The idea of “too good to be true” is very much at play here.

Why Are Fake Word Origins So Popular? - YouTube

Comments209 · Space's Useless Names · The Fun (But Fake) Etymologies Of America · On These Questions, Smarter People Do Worse · The Mediterranean ...

Folk Etymologies - The New Inquiry

In fact, this claim has been consistently debunked by scholars for decades. It's a folk etymology, and an incredibly persistent one at that, ...

An Apology for Etymology - Culture on the Edge

Good point. Why do I talk about etymologies in that book? I ... So, despite some using them as a way to determine a word's true origin ...

Origin Unknown - | Lapham's Quarterly

... origin unknown. I said, 'Well, these two words must be connected. It's too good to be true that they're not.' So I began to read about pimp.

Etymology: The Origin of Words | Cuesta College - Cuesta College

For words, interesting origins or histories will help provide a context. For example, a hippopotamus is a "river horse," from the Greek hippos, meaning "horse," ...

Beekes' Etymological Dictionary of Greek - Textkit Greek and Latin ...

But then again, I like to read dictionaries. It is a great book for those with an interest in etymology and Indo-European or Proto-Greek ...

Never Lose Heart, or, The Origin of the Word Galoot - OUP Blog

For an ending, even a fanciful one, -amuffin is a bit too long. Numerous words are dismissed with the verdict of cant origin, of slang origin, ...

Is the etymology of "salary" a myth? - English Stack Exchange

Since, perhaps forever, I had always 'known' that the English word salary was derived from the Latin salarium, to the time when Roman soldiers ...

Some stories are too good to be false... - ratatouille etymology

Answering the question: yes, ratatolha is often given as the origin, as well ... I've never heard the story, but the rat-eating part is true, so ...

Transcript Episode 63: Where to get your English etymologies

Lauren: Yep. They all come from an older Latin verb “maccare,” “to bruise,” so the process of bringing it all together and crushing it to create ...

Folk etymology: from hiccup to hiccough - Sentence first

Oh well. @ Lin ... mollymooly: I like that the etymology of scapegoat seems almost too good to be true. Some of OK's spurious etymologies ...

98: Origin Uncertain (with Anatoly Liberman) - Because Language

BEN: Okay. So, marking, Daniel. Tell us about marking. DANIEL: Well, there's been some work on marking. This is work from Dr Zihan Wang ...

The logic of “Too good to be true” - ESSCA Knowledge

' Well, in the investment world, I say, 'If something sounds too good to be true, it definitely is.'” Three observations about the book from ...