The Words We Use

THE prefix mis-, from Old English mis-, or in borrowed words from Old French mes-, from Old High German missi-, missa-, has given…

THE prefix mis-, from Old English mis-, or in borrowed words from Old French mes-, from Old High German missi-, missa-, has given the dialects of English some extraordinary words. I've collected a sampling of them for you. Some of them have found their way into the English of Ireland; some have never left their home turf but are found in dialect stories and poems, and of course, in the scores of dialect dictionaries that were produced in the late 19th century.

Misagaft is a Sussex word. It means mistaken: "Ye be misagaft about that". Misbeholden is an adjective found in Scotland and northern England. It is generally used of speech, and it means offensive, ill-natured, out of place in civilised company. Misboden is a word you'd hear around Newcastle-upon-Tyne instead of injured. Chaucer has "Or who hath you misboden", or offended, in the Canterbury Tales. This is from Old English misboedan, to ill-use.

Miscarriage should still be used with a degree of caution in both Scotland and Yorkshire, where, for instance, "I'm sorry about your miscarriage", means simply, I'm sorry that you've had bad luck. Miscarriage also means misconduct, misbehaviour, in those parts, where a sentence such as "Marriage was designed to screen some haverel's miscarriage" could easily be misconstrued, or misconstered, as they say in Lancashire. Mischancy has travelled from Scotland to here. It means unlucky, risky, mischievous. Barlow's Lisconnel (1895), an Ulster work of no great importance, has "Last week I got laid up wid this mischancy could."

Stevenson has misconvenient for inconvenient; I've heard this in many places in Wicklow and Wexford. To misdoubt means to disbelieve, in both Scotland and Ulster. "Be mae word and I don't misdoubt ye" was recorded in Donegal a hundred years ago. The word also means to suspect, to fear.

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Barlow, in another story, Bogland, has "We began to misdoubt some bad luck." In Scotland, Kent, Somerset and in Donegal, some of the older people have to misgo (misgae in the case of Scotland), meaning to go wrong, to go astray. "Her was a oncommon nice maid; 'tis a thousand pities her should 'a miswent" was recorded in Somerset.

To mislear in Scotland and in Ulster means to misinform, to lead astray, to seduce. Wexford English once had the noun mizlear, a dangerous sleeveen. The word is from the Old English mislaeran, to teach wrongly, to persuade a person to do what is wrong.