Etymograph

English

miswrite

Miswrite comes from Old English miswrītan ‘to write incorrectly, make a mistake in writing’, from Proto-West Germanic *wrītan ‘to scratch, carve’, and ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrītaną.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wrītaną‘to scratch, carve’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wrītan‘to scratch, carve’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wrītan‘to write’
  4. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150miswrītan‘to write incorrectly, make a mistake in writing’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500miswriten
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1983miswrite

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wrītaną‘to scratch, carve’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wrītan‘to scratch, carve’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wrītan‘to write’
  4. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150miswrītan‘to write incorrectly, make a mistake in writing’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500miswriten
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1983miswrite

Earliest quotation: 1983, Lawrence Calmus, The business guide to small computers: “Line fluctuations can cause misreads and miswrites.”

Formed from mis- + write

Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘to change’

Proto-Indo-European *mitˢtós ‘mutual, reciprocal’

Proto-Germanic *missa- ‘wrongly, badly, mis-’

Proto-West Germanic *missa- ‘mis-, wrongly’

English mis-

Proto-Indo-European *wrey- ‘to rip’

Proto-Germanic *wrītaną ‘to carve’

Proto-West Germanic *wrītan ‘to scratch’

Old English wrītan ‘to write’

Middle English writen ‘to write’

English write

Linked words

through Old English wrītan ‘to write’

writing, writer, unwritten, underwrite, 2 more

Today it means

verb To write incorrectly.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *wrītaną / miswrite

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