Folk Etymology refers to assigning meanings to words based on analysis of their syllabic structure, but not based on their history. You might say that they're analytically robust but historically challenged. Individual syllables are assigned meanings through mainly phonic connection. This is akin to taking the "best guess of an idiot" to an extreme. For example, if someone thought that Manhattan got its name from Man With Hat On then they would be doing folk etymology.

Or would they? According to Robert Beard (Dr. Language), Folk Etymology is not the analysis process by which we discover a word's history, but the process that actually yielded the word. For example, the word "woodchuck" is derived from an Algonquin word via folk etymology, that is, the process whereby Algonquin syllables were replaced by like-sounding familiar syllables in the (English?) language.

The tipoff is obvious: "folk" don't analyze; they just do.

There followed a very engaging discussion of the Origins Of Paranoia.

On an unrelated note, Richard Kulisz, in that page you say that the Greeks thought of there minds as something imposed upon their bodies divinely. Does this come from Jaynes, or elsewhere? I was under the impression that the Greeks didn't even consider their minds and bodies separately until reasonably late, but haven't read too much of their writings in any detail. References would be a great help.

The Greeks loved to claim people descended from folk with similar sounding names - the Persians from Perseus, the Medians from Medea - and little snippets of this have even been trusted, like the origins of the Etruscans. Does this count as bad enough?

It does indeed. Are there any other examples? This is quite interesting.

Another example is Anarchy as An- and Archy meaning no government, which is not quite what it means; now or ever. First, anarchy meant anti-capitalism from the beginning. [reference?] Second, it depends on what you mean by 'government'. If government refers to an institutional decision structure then anarchy did not, and still doesn't, mean no government. The people who most persistently engage in Folk Etymology of anarchism are "anarcho"-capitalists (which is revealed to be an oxymoron) and others intent on slandering it.

Needless to say, Folk Etymology is often wrong.

Fair enough and agreed. There are some wonderful "Christian" examples I've heard in my time in sermons. Yet I also find that I more than agree with Pretend Words Mean What They Used To. Without experiencing the joys and the non-sequiturs of this game early in life, how can we get to grips with language at all? It's like trying to find the soap in the bath. Even if it's slippery it both fun and necessary to get to grips with it. And it wouldn't be any use as soap without being slippery. (What, never tried pumice?)

YHWH contains a wonderful folksie narrative in its first paragraph.

What is the Genesis Of Etymology itself, out of interest?

Anarchy: An-'Archy': A folksy Architect? -- MN

No, Anarchy: an- (without) archy (the arched thing): someone who will not patronize Mac Donalds. -- WM

That's me. -- rk And me. Hard to patronize a restaurant that spends more effort on promoting toys than its food. -- mt Who are all these two-initals people anyway?

Uh-oh. That makes me an arch-villain -- ps