Undercorrect

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To adjust or fix an error or problem by too small an amount, so the correction falls short of what is needed
2. Describing the act of applying too mild a remedy, leaving the mistake only partly put right
3. Making a change to address a flaw that is not large enough to fully eliminate the fault

Etymology: The verb "undercorrect" is simple to take apart: the prefix "under-", meaning insufficiently or too little, is attached to "correct", which comes from Latin "corrigere", "to make straight or set right". So to undercorrect is to set something right only partway, leaving the fix short of what the problem demands. The prefix does the work here: "under-" is a productive English element that has been used for centuries to form verbs and nouns of insufficiency, such as "underestimate" and "underpay", and "undercorrect" follows the same pattern. The result is a word that describes a specific kind of failure. A driver who turns the wheel too little overcorrects in the opposite direction, but a driver who turns it too little undercorrects and stays on course only by luck. The word is most often used in technical and everyday contexts, such as aircraft handling, medical treatment of vision, or editing a draft, where a correction that stops short leaves the original error largely intact.

Synonyms: undercompensate

Antonyms: overcorrect