mistake

Meanings

Verb

• To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
• To misunderstand (someone).
• To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
• To take or choose wrongly.

Noun

• An error; a blunder.
• A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.

Origin

• From Middle English mistaken, from Old Norse mistaka; equivalent to mis- + take. Cognate with Icelandic mistaka, Swedish missta (before apocope misstaga). Displaced Middle English misnimen and Middle English misfōn from Old English misfōn (and noun misfeng).
• The noun, which replaced earlier mistaking, is derived from the verb.