Misdesignate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To incorrectly identify or assign a name or title to something or someone
2. to mislabel or misattribute properties or characteristics
3. to designate in a way that deviates from the accurate or intended meaning

Etymology: "Misdesignate" is built from "mis-", a prefix from Old English meaning "wrongly" or "amiss," and "designate," which comes from the Latin "designare," meaning "to mark out" or "to indicate." Latin "designare" combined "de-" (here meaning "out" or "completely") with "signare" ("to mark"), from "signum," a sign or token. So at its root, to designate is to mark something out clearly, and the prefix turns that act of marking into one that goes wrong. "Designate" entered English in the early 1400s, first in the sense of pointing out or specifying a thing by name or mark, and only later took on the sense of appointing someone to an office. The verb "misdesignate" follows the same pattern, with the prefix attached to the older sense of marking out. Its use is rare, and it appears mostly in technical, legal, or scholarly writing where a label or classification has been applied incorrectly.