back-formationn.
Philology.
The formation of what looks like a root-word from an already existing word which might be (but is not) a derivative of the former.
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the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > morphology > word-formation > [noun] > other specific types of word-formation
metaplasmOE
subunion1534
encapsulation1860
stem-building1870
incorporation1874
recomposition1885
back-formation1888
contamination1888
stem-composition1902
recomposition1964
1888 N.E.D. at Burgle A back-formation from Burglar.
1907 Athenæum 5 Jan. 7/3 ‘Narration’ is fifteenth century, ‘narrative’..and ‘narrator’ as early as Bacon, so that, like many verbs of the same termination, it [sc. ‘narrate’] may have been a back-formation.
1926 H. W. Fowler Dict. Mod. Eng. Usage 516/1 Scavenger, n., is the origin, in English, from which to scavenge is a back-formation, the normal verb being to scavenger.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.1888