mislead

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English misleden,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English mislǣdan (“to lead astray”),^[5][3][6][7] formed from mis- and lǣdan (“to lead”),^[3][6] the sources of mis- and lead.^[3] The Old English verb is recorded in the third person singular mislǣt, in Ælfric.^[2][5] The OED treats it as inherited from Germanic, with cognates in Middle Dutch misleiden (modern misleiden), Old High German misseleiten (modern missleiten), Swedish missleda and Danish mislede.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lead astray in conduct, to lead into error: in Ælfric's first Letter to Wulfstan, before 1050.^[8][4] Bosworth–Toller quotes Ælfric on one who has no learning and will not learn, and so leads astray his followers and himself.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to lead astray, deceive or betray, and also to baffle, injure, or even ruin or kill someone; reflexively it meant to blunder.^[2][8] It also meant to mismanage, from about 1225 to 1513.^[8] Chaucer used it four times, as in his Boece, where error mysledeth men into false goods, translating Latin abducit, and Gower twice.^[2][9] From 1575 it was used of guiding someone in the wrong direction on a road, a sense now rare.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to guide a wrong way; to betray to mischief or mistake", quoting Shakespeare.^[10] The usual modern sense, to deceive by giving false information or a wrong impression, grew out of the older moral sense of leading into error.^[8][6]

Timeline

• before 1050 – to lead astray, into error.^[8][5]
• c. 1225 – to mismanage (obsolete by 1513).^[8]
• before 1393 – reflexive, to blunder, in Gower (obsolete).^[8][2]
• 1575 – to guide in the wrong direction.^[8]
• 1654 – to misinterpret (obsolete).^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause someone to believe something untrue; to deceive, whether on purpose or not: The advertisement misled buyers about the car's mileage.^[11][3][8]
2. To lead someone into a wrong action or into wrongdoing.^[3][8][6]
3. To guide someone in the wrong direction.^[11][8][3]

Word family

• misleader
• misleadingly

Related words

• lead

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins