Folk Etymology Definition

noun

Unscientific etymology; popular but incorrect notion of the origin and derivation of a word: folk etymology may bring about change, as in the case of “cole slaw” becoming “cold slaw”

Webster's New World

A modification of a word or its spelling resulting from such a misunderstanding, as with island, belfry, and hangnail.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Folk Etymology

Noun

Singular:

folk etymology

Plural:

folk-etymologies

Origin of Folk Etymology

English from the 1880s (Abram Smythe Palmer, 1882), a calque of German Volksetymologie (1820s, in 1821 as Volks-Etymologie in J. A. Schmeller, Die mundarten Bayerns).

From Wiktionary