Misgave

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Caused someone to feel uneasy, doubtful or afraid that something might go wrong
2. Filled a person with a sense of dread or uncertainty about how an outcome would turn out
3. Gave rise to anxiety or suspicion in the mind, usually about a future event or decision

Etymology: "Misgave" is the simple past of "misgive," so its story is really the story of the verb behind it. "Misgive" combines the prefix "mis-," meaning wrongly or badly, with "give," and the sense it carries is the old one of giving a feeling or suggestion to the mind. To misgive was originally to suggest something ill, so that a person's heart or mind was given a bad notion, and the sense of doubt or apprehension grew out of that idea. The root verb "give" in Middle English could mean "suggest" or "give," which is the same sense that survives in phrases like "what gives" and in the participle "given." The prefix "mis-" is an old English element that signals error or wrongness, as in "mistake" or "misjudge," and it attached to a verb that already had this flexible, mental sense. So "misgave" is simply the past tense of this compound, and its meaning follows from the sense of the base verb.

Synonyms: doubted, feared

Antonyms: trusted