Misidentify

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To inaccurately determine the identity of a person or object, leading to confusion or mistaken assumptions
2. To mistake the identity of a person or object by incorrectly recognizing or labeling them
3. To incorrectly name or recognize someone or something, leading to errors in identification

Etymology: The verb "misidentify" is a plain combination of two English parts: the prefix "mis-", meaning wrongly or badly, and "identify". That second part is the more interesting one. "Identify" comes from the Latin "identificare", built from "idem" ("the same") and "facere" ("to make"), so its core sense is making one thing the same as another, and it reached English through the Late Latin and medieval sense of establishing that something is the same as a known thing. Its use for recognizing a person or a thing by name came later. The prefix "mis-" has a long pedigree in English. It descends from Old English "mis-", and its root can be traced back through Proto-Germanic to a sense of going wrong or failing, which is why it attaches so readily to verbs of judgment and action. Middle English spelled it "mys-" before the modern form settled. Putting the two together gives a word that means exactly what it looks like: to identify someone or something wrongly, such as mistaking one person for another or assigning the wrong name to them.

Synonyms: misclassify, mistake

Antonyms: identify, recognize