misrepresent

Etymology

It is formed from English mis- (“badly, wrongly”) + represent.^[2][3][4][5] The prefix is the Germanic one, from Old English mis-;^[3][2] the verb represent is from Middle English representen, from Old French representer, from Latin repraesentō (“to show”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give a false or imperfect account of something: 1633, in William Prynne's Histrio-mastix.^[2][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1640s,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1640–50,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1649.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the false account could be given on purpose or not.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to represent not as it is, to falsify to someone's disadvantage, and remarked that mis- often adds a sense of malice as well as of error.^[9] An intransitive use, with the object implied, is found in Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671).^[2] With the rise of representative government came a second sense, to serve badly as someone's representative, first recorded in 1860 in John Stuart Mill's Considerations on Representative Government.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1633 – to represent wrongly; to give a false account of.^[2][7]
• 1671 – intransitive, with the object implied (rare).^[2]
• 1860 – to represent badly as an agent or representative.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give a false or misleading account of; to represent wrongly: The report misrepresented the extent of the flooding.^[10][5][2]
2. To serve badly or improperly as a representative of: voters who felt misrepresented by their senator.^[5][2]

Word family

• misrepresentation
• misrepresenter
• misrepresentative

Related words

• represent
• representation

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes it from its near-synonyms: misrepresent usually implies a deliberate intent to deceive for gain or advantage, distort a twisting or slanting of statements, falsify tampering with facts or records, and belie giving an impression that contradicts the facts, usually without intent to deceive.^[8]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins