misnomer

Meanings

1. A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
2. An incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading; a misname.
3. A term which is misleading, even if firmly established, technically correct, or both.
4. Something which is asserted not to be true; a mistaken belief, a falsehood, a myth.

1. To use an incorrect, and especially misleading, name for (someone or something); to misidentify, to misname.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Late Middle English misnoumer (“(law) mistaken identification of a person; plea based on such misidentification”), from Anglo-Norman mesnomer, a noun use of Anglo-Norman mesnomer, mesnommer, and Old French mesnomer, mesnommer (“to name incorrectly”), from mes- (prefix meaning ‘badly, wrongly’) + nomer, nommer (“to name”) (from Latin nōmināre, the present active infinitive of nōminō (“to name”), from nōmen (“name”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). The verb is derived from the noun.