Where does “misnomer” come from?
Misnomer comes from Old French mesnomer, combining Old French mes- with Latin nominare meaning to name, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European meit-.
misnomer (English): A use of a term that is misleading; a misname; A...
Definitions
- A use of a term that is misleading; a misname; A...
Ancestry of “misnomer”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Middle English | misnoumer | — |
| 2 | Anglo-Norman | mesnomer | to name incorrectly |
| 3 | Old French | mesnomer | to name incorrectly |
| 4 | Old French | nomer | to name; to be called |
| 5 | Latin | nōmināre | — |
| 6 | Latin | nōminō | — |
| 7 | Latin | nōmen | — |
| 8 | Latin | est | third-person singular present active indicative... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁ésti | to be |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁es- | to be |
Words derived from “misnomer”