the.com/folk etymology
where a word doesn't come from, but everyone agreed it should have.
means a false but plausible-sounding origin story for a word, often reshaping the word itself to match the myth.
from coined 1852 by German linguist Ernst Förstemann, who noticed people reshape unfamiliar words to fit familiar ones, like sandblasting a foreign term until it looks like furniture you already own.
cockroach reshapingspanish cucaracha became english cockroach, no roosters involved
hangnail hijackold english angnaegl meant painful nail, not hanging
bridegroom driftold english guma man morphed into groom via horse stables
female fictionfemale looks like male plus prefix, pure coincidence, latin femella