What does misattributed mean?
Misattributed describes something that has been credited incorrectly to a person, author, source, or origin. The word commonly appears in discussions of quotations, anecdotes, works of art, historical claims, and cultural or scientific discoveries. Its use does not merely suggest that an attribution is debatable; it identifies the attribution as wrong. For example, a quotation circulating under the name of a famous author may be called misattributed when evidence shows that the author never said it. The word can also describe a painting wrongly assigned to an artist or a discovery wrongly credited to a particular researcher. Because “mis-” clearly communicates the error, “misattributed” is often more precise and economical than a longer phrase such as “incorrectly attributed.” It works in both formal writing and ordinary journalism, though the expressions “widely misattributed” and “commonly misattributed to” are especially common when discussing claims that have circulated beyond their original context.
adjectiveWrongly attributed to a particular person, author, source, or origin.
- Incorrectly credited to a particular person, author, source, or origin.
"The newspaper corrected its misattributed quotation from the former minister."
"Several widely circulated quotations have been shown to be misattributed."
"The anonymous painting had been misattributed to a nineteenth-century artist for decades."
“Play it again, Sam” is one of cinema’s most famously misattributed quotations: it was not actually spoken that way in Casablanca.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does misattributed come from?
Misattributed combines the prefix “mis-,” meaning wrongly, with “attributed,” the past participle of “attribute.” “Attribute” ultimately comes through French from Latin attribuere, meaning to assign or ascribe to another. The prefixed adjective developed as a way of describing something assigned to the wrong person or source; its related noun, “misattribution,” follows the same formation.
Related word forms
How misattributed is actually used
The adjective is commonly used before a noun, as in “a misattributed quote,” or after a linking verb, as in “The quote was misattributed.” It is neutral in register and can refer to any incorrect attribution of authorship, speech, authorship, achievement, or origin.
Easily confused with misattributed
Attributed means credited to a particular person or source, while misattributed means that this credit is incorrect.
Misattributed is the adjective describing something that has been wrongly credited, whereas misattribution is the noun naming the error or act of wrongly crediting it.