My favorite is the one that says that the word “politician” comes from the Greek “poly”, meaning many (as in polygon or polymer), and the French “tête”, meaning head.
Meaning that the most prominent feature that distinguishes politicians from the regular public is that they have more than one head or face, e.g. as in the expression “two-faced”, meaning someone who won’t commit to a point of view and changes their point of view to schmooze with whomever they are with right now.
In reality, the word comes from the Greek “polis”, meaning “city”. Which explains why you have to be a citizen (a city denizen) to take part (e.g. vote, run for office) in politics (the stuff of the city).
The Canary Islands are not named after the bird. The Romans called them Insulae Canariae, i.e. “dog islands”. The bird that is called the canary is called a canary because it was from the Canary Islands.
The Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church are not called “Cardinals” because they wear red robes that are tinted the color of cardinals (the bird). The birds are named that because they are of the color of the robes traditionally worn by Cardinals.
I have heard the rumor that “hep”, as a part of the expression “hip hip hurray!”, comes from the Crusaders. The hep (or “hip” as it is commonly spelled today) came from the Latin acronym HEP, Hierosolyma Est Perdita, i.e. “Jerusalem is lost”, which is largely the justification that the Crusaders gave for actually going on Crusades. Cecil actually tried to tackle this one, but apparently there isn’t enough evidence to really tell.
I bet making up these terrible acronyms is the highlight of some overworked Congressional staffer’s day.
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHH!
Or the even-less-funny joke version, “politics = poly, meaning many, and ticks, or blood-sucking creatures.” This is usually shared by people who think “Congress is the opposite of Congress” is clever.
No, a backronym is an acronym made to fit an existing word. So they wanted to call it the PATRIOT act, and then figured out what words fit to make it work. It doesn’t have to be a false etymology that comes after the fact. ETA: See the Wikipedia article on it and the COLBERT example.
Slightly off topic but I knew a woman who thought “laissez-faire” economics was said “laser-fair”. And it meant like a crazy light show. As in “The NDP (social democratic party in Canada) is all about laser-fair economics. Its just like a crazy light show at a roller rink, everything going this way and that.”
Yes, she lived in a trailer park.
No, she did not have many teeth.
No, I have no clue how she even knew the term “laissez-fair” economics.
Her first language was French. :smack:
She was my babysitter’s sister, and that is how I met her. I declined her offer to watch my child when her sister moved away.
^ SABENA (the airline): Such A Bad Experience, Never Again (ETA: Oh, I guess it’s now the long-defunct airline, apparently ceasing operations in 2001.)
DELTA: Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport. I told the Delta agent this during one of those five hour delays in thirty minute increments so you can’t really leave the gate. She was not amused.
There is one I have tried to explain to young soldiers. The term pogue is old slang going back to at least WWII with a meaning similar to REMF (rear echelon mother fucker). Some time in the not too distant past people started using POG (but still pronounced the same as pogue) as a derogatory term for those not in the infantry. POG stands for Personnel Other than Grunt. Many of the younger crowd don’t want to believe that it is a backronym of an earlier term. But those are the same people who tend to still spout the propaganda their Drill Sergeants said long after basic.
The airline and auto company ones don’t bug me, probably because no one pretends they’re anything other than jokes. The pseudoetymological ones that people will tell you with absolute faith in their truth, like posh 'n so on, those’re the ones that get me all spittle-frothing-ragey.
