Dictionary
folk' etymol'ogy
1. a modification of a linguistic form according either to a falsely assumed etymology, as
Welsh rarebit from
Welsh rabbit, or to a historically irrelevant analogy, as
bridegroom from
bridegome.
2. a popular but false notion of the origin of a word.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.