misgloss

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ gloss

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈɡlɒs/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsɡlɒs/

Verb

misgloss (third-person singular simple present misglosses, present participle misglossing, simple past and past participle misglossed)

1. To provide an incorrect translation or synopsis of
   • 1876, Alexander Crawford Lindsay Earl of Crawford, Argo: Or The Quest of the Golden Fleece, page 68:

     Upis taught, Misunderstood, misgloss'd, the tale how brought Harmonia was to Cadmus — higher than Her mate in race, a dæmon, he mere man;

   • 1981, Catherine Slater, Defeatists and Their Enemies, page 139:

     But the definition is anachronistic and misglosses the citation it was presumably devised to explain.

   • 1992, Lowry Nelson, Poetic Configurations: Essays in Literary History and Criticism, page 41:

     Both its traditional subject matter and the concision of its form have recommended it to this very day as a promise of "infinite riches in a little room” (=stanza) , to misgloss Marlowe's phrase.

   • 1996, Michaela Paasche Grudin, Chaucer and the Politics of Discourse, page 67:

     In a scheme that involves material possessions in huge quantity and counts on Calchas's thrice-invoked greed (1369, 1377–78, 1399), Criseyde claims that she will convince Calchas that it was his cowardice that caused him to misgloss "goddes text" (1409-11).

   • 2002, Ward Hunt Goodenough, Under Heaven's Brow: Pre-Christian Religious Tradition in Chuuk, page 208:

     It means 'white tip' and not 'white of the eye' as Krämer misglosses it.

Noun

misgloss (plural misglosses)

1. An incorrect translation or synopsis.
   • 2003, Earl R. Anderson, Folk-taxonomies in Early English, page 152:

     Recently, this misgloss has led to an impossible interpretation of the Beowulf poet's allusion to "beornas on blancum" [warriors on white horses] (856a) and their racing on "fealwe mearwas" [fallow horses] (865b) in the episode of the Danes and Geats coming back from the mere.

   • 2005, Martine Irma Robbeets, Is Japanese Related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic?, page 100:

     Starostin's sisi 'deer' is a misgloss, the word can refer to 'deer' as an 'animal for consumption' but does not necessary do so.

   • 2006, Folia orientalia - Volumes 42-43, page 467:

     Here such cases as ghost words & misglosses, secondary semantics, different etymologies for one etymon or one etymology for different etyma, and finally semantic overpermissiveness are discussed.

Anagrams

• glossism