misetymology

Noun

misetymology (countable and uncountable, plural misetymologies)

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