Folk etymology may make people change the form of a word so that it would better match its popular rationalisation. For example, Old English sam-blind 'half-blind' became sand-blind (as if 'blinded by the sand') when people were no longer able to make sense of the element sam 'half', and Old English bryd-guma 'bride-man' became bridegroom after the loss of the Old English word guma 'man' rendered the compound semantically obscure. More recent examples are French (e)crevisse which became English cray-fish or asparagus which became sparrow-grass.
The pantry is not so called since it is or was used for storing pots and pans, but because it was originally a bread store (Old French paneterie). (Room; see reference below)
In non-sexist language, folk etymology is one source of neologisms like herstory to replace history.
Reference
Adrian Room, Dictionary of True Etymologies, 1986, Routledge & Kegan Paul
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