Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
I suppose it would be a type of "folk etymology", although more specifically "люди бога ведают" seems likely to be a so-called "backronym" or "acrostic" that was later mistaken for the real etymology. The English wikipedia article on "backronym" gives the example of the Alcoholics Anonymous slogan that "the word denial stands for Don't Even Notice I Am Lying". But I assume no one in AA literally believes that the word "denial" originated as an acronym.
Thank you for posting, Throbert. I completely forgot about backronyms, and the example you gave is great. I think that there are more Russians who literally believe in the veracity of Russian etymologies than there are English speakers who believe that the word "denial" derived from the acronym you mentioned.