misnomer

English

Examples
chickenpox: it has nothing to do with chickens, and is not a pox (i.e. poxvirus). crabeater seal: it eats krill, not crabs. fisher (Mustelid, Pekania pennanti): it does not eat fish. Greenland and Iceland: Iceland is much greener, and less icy, than Greenland. prairie dog: it is a squirrel, so not closely related to dogs.

Etymology

From Middle English misnoumer, from Anglo-Norman mesnomer, noun use of Anglo-Norman and Old French verb mesnomer (“to name incorrectly”), from mes- (“mis-”) + nomer (“to name”) (from Latin nōmināre).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈnəʊmə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈnoʊmɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊmə(ɹ)

Noun

misnomer (plural misnomers)

1. A use of a term that is misleading; a misname.

   Synonym: misname

   Calling it a driveway is a bit of a misnomer, since you don't drive on it, you park on it.

   • 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Rewilding […] is also a misnomer, for whether by getting rid of tens of thousands of sheep in Patagonia or introducing a living species as a surrogate for an extinct one – Sayaguesa cattle in place of aurochs in Croatia’s Velebit Mountains, for instance – rewilding requires more human intervention than its name suggests.

   • 1994, Illinois. Appellate Court, Stephen Davis Porter, Illinois Appellate reports, page 257:

     […] plaintiff's misstyling himself as corporation in initial complaint constituted case of misnomer.

2. A term that is misleading, even if it may not be incorrect.

   The name Chinese checkers is a misnomer since the game has nothing to do with China.

   The word blackboard as applied to green or brown chalkboards is a misnomer but is not incorrect, as the broad sense of the word is idiomatic.

3. A term whose sense in common usage conflicts with a technical sense.
4. (proscribed, nonstandard) something asserted not to be true; a myth or mistaken belief

   It's a misnomer that engineers can't write.

Antonyms

• aptronym

Translations

use of term that is misleading

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: verkeerde naam
• Finnish: harhaanjohtava (fi) (adjective; often used in partitive)
• German: Fehlbenennung f, Fehlbezeichnung f, Namensirrtum m
• Greek: ακυριολεξία (el) f (akyriolexía)
• Hungarian: helytelen​/​téves​/​hibás megnevezés​/​elnevezés​/​név, (less common) névhiba, névtévesztés, névcsere (hu), (“mistake”) tévedés (hu)
• Icelandic: rangnefni n
• Spanish: nombre inapropiado m, nombre improprio m
• Turkish: yanlış adlandırma, uygunsuz adlandırma

misleading term

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: harhaanjohtava käsite ("käsite" may be replaced with termi, sana, sanonta, ilmaus etc.)
• German: irreführende Bezeichnung f
• Greek: ακυριολεξία (el) f (akyriolexía)
• Hungarian: megtévesztő megnevezés​/​elnevezés​/​név
• Icelandic: rangnefni n
• Italian: denominazione impropria f
• Japanese: 誤称 (ja) (goshō)

term whose sense in common usage conflicts with a technical sense

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: harhaanjohtava käsite ("käsite" may be replaced with termi, sana, sanonta, ilmaus etc.)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} slecht gekozen term de
• French: ^{(please verify)} terme mal approprié m
• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} שם לא נכון , ^{(please verify)} שקרי
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 잘못된 이름 (jalmotdoen ireum)
• Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 錯誤的名稱 / 错误的名称, ^{(please verify)} 错误的名称
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} termen nepotrivit
• Welsh: ^{(please verify)} camenw

See also

• catachresis

Verb

misnomer (third-person singular simple present misnomers, present participle misnomering, simple past and past participle misnomered)

1. (transitive) To use a misleading term; to misname.

References

• “misnomer”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• semi-norm, seminorm