misgloss

From mis- +‎ gloss.

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

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.

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" (856a) and their racing on "fealwe mearwas" (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.

• glossism