Etymology is the study of the origins of words and how their usage has changed over time. It's every bit the serious academic discipline you might expect it to be — except when it's not.
As it turns out, people have a propensity to make false claims about word origins. Sometimes, it's just a case of someone making a bad guess and sharing it. Other times, the inaccuracies seemingly stem from clever pranks that have gone viral because they're funny or irresistibly piquant.
Many of these popular etymological misconceptions (known to linguists and folklorists as "folk etymologies") are based on faulty comparisons or analogies. Still, a surprising number of what we're inclined to call "fake etymologies" (because we're inclined to think many of them were conceived as jokes) are based on acronyms. Did the word "tip" (as in "tipping one's server") originate as the acronym of "to insure promptness"? The answer is a resounding "no" in both cases.
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Could 'News' Mean North, East, West, South?
The Claim: The word "news" is an acronym formed from the words north, east, west, and south.
Fact Check Rating: False
This fake acronym is formed from the initial letters of the four cardinal compass points (north, east, west, and south), supposedly because news is information from all over the land. Similar folk etymologies include the idea that "news" derives from an acronym...
Pop superstar Taylor Swift has been falsely accused of a laundry list of absurdities: Doing "satanic rituals" at her shows. Being a government "psyop." But this time, the news about her is true: S...