mismatch

Etymology

The verb is formed from English mis- + match, "badly, wrongly" and the verb match.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun is formed from the prefix and the noun match, after the verb,^[2][3] or partly from the verb itself.^[5] The noun match, one of a pair or an equal, is from Old English gemæcca (“companion, mate”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To match badly, unsuitably or incorrectly: 1582, in Mulcaster's Elementarie.^[2][7] Etymonline and Dictionary.com date the verb to the 1590s.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In later use the verb was used especially of marriage.^[3][8] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to match unsuitably", quoting Southerne's Spartan Dame.^[9] The noun, a bad match or a discrepancy, follows in 1606, in Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas.^[2][7] A sporting sense, an unequal or unfair contest, is recorded from 1954, in a boxing dictionary.^[2][3] The noun mismatchment is recorded from 1841.^[3]

Timeline

• 1582 – verb, to match badly or unsuitably.^[2]
• 1606 – noun, a bad match, a discrepancy.^[2]
• 1841 – mismatchment.^[3]
• 1954 – an unequal or unfair sporting contest.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bad or unsuitable match; a lack of correspondence, a discrepancy: a mismatch between the plans and the budget.^{[8][4][10][2]}
2. An unequal contest, as between a strong and a weak team or fighter.^[4][2]

Verb

1. To match wrongly or unsuitably, especially in marriage: The tiles had been mismatched in the corner.^{[8][4][10][2]}

Related words

• match

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt