misattribution

Etymology

From mis- + attribution.

misattribution means the act or process of misattributing. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 71 out of 100.

Why this word is great

MISATTRIBUTION — [Noun] The act or instance of incorrectly assigning the source, cause, or authorship of something. From the English prefix mis- ("badly, wrongly") + attribution, from Latin attribuere ("to assign, bestow"). Unlike misunderstanding (a general fog of meaning) or plagiarism (a deliberate theft of credit), misattribution is a specific, often innocent, dislocation of a thing from its true origin. It is the haunting melody you swear is original until you hum it for a friend, the profound quote you ascribe to the wrong philosopher, or the fervent conviction that a profound insight was born in your own mind. We wander through a world of borrowed light, forever assembling a past from fragments whose true provenance has slipped away.

noun

The act or process of misattributing.
An incorrect attribution.“the misattribution of Shakespeare's plays to Francis Bacon”