misinfluence

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ influence

Pronunciation

• (noun) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈɪnfluəns/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˌmɪsɪnˈfluəns/

Verb

misinfluence (third-person singular simple present misinfluences, present participle misinfluencing, simple past and past participle misinfluenced)

1. To influence in a detrimental manner; to act as a bad influence on.
   • 1853, Julius Müller, translated by W. Pulsford, The Christian doctrine of sin, page 285:

     It would still continue to work within as a disturbing and perturbing potency, which detracts from the proper freshness and vigour of the moral zeal, which misinfluences man more or less to yield inclinations and undercurrents of feeling, which do not appear in directly definite offences but still imperceptibly induces in the one direction or the other a state of inertness, of selfish pusillanimity or a prevailing tone of sharpnes and bitterness of disposition of mind;

   • 1922, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Agriculture, Investigation of Organizations Engaged in Combating Legislation for the Relief of Agriculture, page 223:

     We do not want a great organization such as is now being brought about through farmers' movements to misrepresent the grain dealsers of this Nation to the point where they will arouse in the hearts and minds of the producers a prejudice against our services, or arouse in the hearts and minds of the consumers of America a prejudice against our services, and we are gathered here now for the purpose of providing ways and means for bringing to the attention of both classes the real service we render, in order that our interests will be protected against the chicanery, the socialism, the anarchy, the infamy of those things that are being brought to bear to misinfluence and misdirect the farmers and others of this country whose interests are bound to suffer when ours do.

   • 1976, Edwin Vieira, Of Syndicalism, Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment, page 827:

     As more and more people become aware of this systematic program of government partiality towards those special interests “compatible ” with the prejudices of the fonctionnaires, demagogues, intellectuals, and others who misinfluence “public policy", they also become aware of the need to organize politically either to press upon the state claims of their own, or to resist the claims of others.

Noun

misinfluence (countable and uncountable, plural misinfluences)

1. A bad influence; something that misinfluences.
   • 1968, James McClure, The Hanging of the Angels, page 256:

     So I must also keep in mind as I write this that what I describe, again, may not tend to truth because of some environmental misinfluence.

   • 1969, Advertisers Weekly: Organ of British Advertising - Volume 242, page 25:

     At one and the same time it is considered to be the in-profession, the sophisticated career, the forward-looking opportunity, the world of the avant-garde and at the same time it is reckoned to be a misinfluence, a sham, a hypocritical calling that could do with a bit more hypercriticism from its followers.

2. The act or status of misinfluencing.
   • 1930, The English Journal - Volume 19, page 238:

     We can supplement them; we can keep them from exerting any great misinfluence; in short , we can use them instead of being used by them .

   • 1959, Red, White, and Black: Ernow and Erlong Past, Present and Future, page 41:

     The sailors, soldiers, and other members of the armed forces have left their mark on society. Some marks are misinfluence, misrepresentation, illegitimate children, and misinterpretation of the ways of society in the prospective territories.