Old English mislædan "to mislead," common Germanic compound (cf. Middle Low German, Middle Dutch misleiden, Old High German misseleiten, German missleiten, Danish mislede); see mis- (1) + lead (v.). Related: misleading; misled.
Old English mislician "to be displeasing;" see mis- (1) + like (v.). Sense of "to be displeased with" is attested from 1510s. Related: Misliked; misliking.
mid-15c., "mistaken identification of an accused or convicted person," from Anglo-French, Old French mesnomer "to misname, wrongly name," noun use of infinitive, from mes- "wrongly" (see mis- (2)) + nomer "to name," from Latin nominare "nominate" (see nominate). For noun use of French infinitives, cf. waiver.
word-forming element meaning "hater, hatred," before vowels, mis-, comb. form of Greek misos "hatred," misein "to hate." Productive as a word-forming element in ancient Greek, e.g. misoagathia "hatred of good or goodness;" misoponein "to hate work." Forming many compounds in English, most of them obscure or recherche, but some perhaps useful, e.g. misocapnic (adj.) "hating (tobacco) smoke," misocyny "hatred of dogs."
1550s, "to assign a wrong position to;" see mis- (1) + place (v.). Of affections, confidence, etc., "to give to a wrong object," it is recorded from 1630s. Related: Misplaced; misplacing.
"wrong action, a failure on the part of authority," early 15c., from Anglo-French mesprisioun "mistake, error, wrong action or speech," from Old French mesprision "mistake, wrongdoing, fault, blame, crime," from mespris, past participle of mesprendre "to mistake, act wrongly, trespass, transgress, break a law," from mes- "wrongly" (see mis- (2)) + prendre "take," from Latin prendere, contracted from prehendere "seize" (see prehensile).
In 16c., misprision of treason was used for lesser degrees of guilt (those not subject to capital punishment), especially for knowing of treasonable actions or plots but not informing the authorities. This led to the common supposition in legal writers that the word means "failure to denounce" a crime.
late 14c., "bad government of a state;" see mis- (1) + rule (n.). Meaning "disorderly conduct or living" is from c.1400, obsolete except in Lord of Misrule, one chosen to preside over Christmas games in a great house (late 15c.).
Old English missan "fail to hit, miss (a mark); fail in what was aimed at; escape (someone's notice)," influenced by Old Norse missa "to miss, to lack;" both from Proto-Germanic *missjan "to go wrong" (cf. Old Frisian missa, Middle Dutch, Dutch missen, German missen "to miss, fail"), from *missa- "in a changed manner," hence "abnormally, wrongly," from PIE root *mei- "to change" (root of mis- (1); see mutable). Related: Missed; missing.
Meaning "to fail to get what one wanted" is from mid-13c. Sense of "to escape, avoid" is from 1520s; that of "to perceive with regret the absence or loss of (something or someone)" is from late 15c. Sense of "to not be on time for" is from 1823; to miss the boat in the figurative sense of "be too late for" is from 1929, originally nautical slang. To miss out (on) "fail to get" is from 1929.
"the term of honour to a young girl" [Johnson], originally (c.1600) a shortened form of mistress. By 1640s as "prostitute, concubine;" sense of "title for a young unmarried woman, girl" first recorded 1660s. In the 1811 reprint of the slang dictionary, Miss Laycock is given as an underworld euphemism for "the monosyllable." Miss America is from 1922 as the title bestowed on the winner of an annual nationwide U.S. beauty/talent contest. Earlier it meant "young American women generally" or "the United States personified as a young woman," and it also was the name of a fast motor boat.
late 12c., "loss, lack; " c. 1200, "regret occasioned by loss or absence," from Old English miss "absence, loss," from source of missan "to miss" (see miss (v.)). Meaning "an act or fact of missing; a being without" is from late 15c.; meaning "a failure to hit or attain" is 1550s. To give something a miss "to abstain from, avoid" is from 1919. Phrase a miss is as good as a mile was originally, an inch, in a miss, is as good as an ell (see ell).
c.1300, from Old French messel "book of the Mass" (12c.) an ddirectly from Medieval Latin missale, neuter of adjective missalis "pertaining to the Mass," from Late Latin missa "Mass" (see mass (2)).