Examples of Word Meanings Modified By A Folk-etymology-like Process
A process similar to folk etymology may result in a change to the meaning of a word based on an imagined etymology connecting it to an unrelated but similar-sounding word. Often this comes about either through the confusion of a foreign or obsolete word (similar to types A and B above) with a more common word, but it can also result from confusion of two words that have become homophones. Examples:
- The term "forlorn hope" originally meant "shock troop" and is a borrowing from Dutch verloren hoop "lost troop", where hoop is cognate with English heap. But confusion with English hope has given the term an additional meaning of "hopeless venture".
- council, which originally just meant a "meeting" or "group of people", but now means "a committee that leads or governs" through confusion with the homophone counsel "to give advice".
- A jubilee was originally an ancient Jewish tradition (from the Hebrew word yovel, יובל), specifically a year of rest observed once every 50 years. However, it now often means a celebration or time of rejoicing (almost the opposite of its original meaning) through confusion with the unrelated word jubilant.
Read more about this topic: Folk Etymology
Famous quotes containing the words examples of, examples, word, meanings, modified and/or process:
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
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—Richard Harter Fogle, U.S. critic, educator. The Imagery of Keats and Shelley, ch. 1, University of North Carolina Press (1949)
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