The building blocks of English

Affixes

mis-

Various senses with negative implications.

Old English, of Germanic origin; Old French mes‑ (based on Latin minus).

Words from the two sources eventually became the same in both meaning and form, though those from Old French mes‑ are less common. Both forms imply something is awry, wrong, bad, or unsuitable.

Examples from Old English and Old French include misadventure, misbehave, mischance, mischief, misdeed, misfortune, mishap (from the archaic hap, chance or good fortune), mislead, mismanage, misprint, and misrepresent.

The form is currently active and some modern examples are mislabelling, incorrect labelling of goods; mis-selling, selling something to a customer for whom it is an inappropriate purchase; and misaligned, imperfectly or badly aligned.

Miscellaneous is from Latin miscere, to mix. For misanthropy, see the next entry.