missplit

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ split

Verb

missplit (third-person singular simple present missplits, present participle missplitting, simple past and past participle missplit)

1. To split incorrectly.
   • 1954, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, The Supplemental Appropriation Bill, 1955, page 719:

     In the 1953 program, it was more or less a crash progam in which the Bureau of the Budget on one day told us we could come up here with so much money and that night at 4 o'clock in the morning they finally finished splitting items, and they missplit this particular item and had the estimate too low .

   • 2015, “Livesplit Question : r/speedrun”, in Reddit‎^[1]:

     Also if you missplit, you can just undo it and skip the split.

   • 2023, “The etymologies of common computer terms : r/etymology”, in Reddit‎^[2]:

     The modern meaning of cyber- is heavily influenced by Gibson's cyberspace, but he wasn't actually the first to missplit it.

2. (meat processing) To incompletely sever the spinal column with a saw.
   • 1973, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 879:

     After observing them at work for some 5 minutes, Ludlow concluded it was Beedle who missplit 10 to 30 percent of the cattle he sawed.

   • 2003, Brian K. Nunnally, Ira S. Krull, Prions and Mad Cow Disease, page 68:

     The likelihood that missplitting will occur depends on the size and age of the animal (e.g. calves are less likely to be missplit than bulls or cows) and the proficiency of the saw operator.

   • 2005, J Sofos, Improving the Safety of Fresh Meat, page 292:

     Plants should have protocols for handling missplit carcasses.

Noun

missplit (plural missplits)

1. An instance or result of missplitting (any sense)
   • 1929, Henry C. Mercer, Ancient Carpenters' Tools, page 13:

     It took about three long-pull shaves (right, left and middle) of the draw knife, upon the shingle, clamped in the shaving horse, to thin its top surface and straighten its long sides. Numerous missplits were thrown away.

   • 2003, Brian K. Nunnally, Ira S. Krull, Prions and Mad Cow Disease, page 68:

     The extent to which AMR product becomes contaminated is particularly sensitive to missplits because they can leave behind pieces of spinal cord encapsulated in the vertebral column that are processed by AMR.

   • 2008, John N. Duvall, The Cambridge Companion to Don DeLillo, page 60:

     Billy recalls particularly the scream lady, a neighbor who had undergone a hysterectomy, victimized by the blind missplit of a single cell that then steadily, stupidly copied that error, metastasizing into a tumor.

Anagrams

• simplist, splitism