Misset

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To assign, place, or send wrongly ; to miss in aiming or intention ; to interpret or grasp a meaning incorrectly
2. Refers to the act of directing something to the wrong place or person ; failing to hit the intended mark ; misunderstanding or misjudging
3. Involves putting or sending to an incorrect destination ; making an error in targeting or aiming ; misconstruing or failing to comprehend properly

Etymology: The verb "misset" is simply a compound of "mis-" and "set," and the history is plain. "Mis-" comes from Old English, where it expressed wrongness or error, and it is cognate with the German "miss-" found in words like "missverstehen," meaning to misunderstand. "Set" goes back to Old English "settan," meaning to place or cause to sit, which traces to a Germanic root meaning to make sit down, linked to the same ancestry as "sit." Put together, "misset" means to place or direct something wrongly. Because the parts are so transparent, the word's meaning follows directly from them: to set something in the wrong position, or to aim it at the wrong target. The sense of misjudging or misunderstanding is an extension of that same idea, the mind placed on the wrong course.

Synonyms: misset