Undercategorize

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Assigning items to a category that is too low or too narrow, failing to recognize their full scope or importance
2. Placing things in a classification that does not capture their true breadth, so they are given too little weight
3. Treating something as belonging to a lesser or more limited group than it actually deserves

Etymology: "Undercategorize" is formed from the prefix "under-" meaning "insufficiently" or "too little," plus "categorize," which traces back through French "catégoriser" to the Greek "katēgoria," originally "accusation" or "predication," from "katēgorein," "to accuse, to speak against." Over time the Greek sense moved from legal accusation to the logical sense of a class or predicate, and then to the sorting of things into groups. The "under-" prefix is productive in English and is the same pattern seen in words like "underestimate" and "underrepresent." It attaches to a verb to mean doing something to too small a degree, so "undercategorize" describes placing something in a narrower or less inclusive class than it merits. The verb is a modern formation built from these existing parts rather than an older inherited word.

Synonyms: miscategorize

Antonyms: overcategorize