What's in a name? Well, in some cases, a name will contain an error, a misunderstanding, or a mislabeling. Historians have long noted that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed's Hill. And the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact of German ancestry. For such cases, we have the term misnomer, which comes from the Anglo-French verb mesnomer ("to misname") and ultimately has its roots in nomen, the Latin word for "name."
Example Sentences
“International Airport” is something of a misnomer, since almost all the arriving and departing flights are local.
Recent Examples on the WebOr perhaps, Damaso muses, cowpox could have been a misnomer this whole time. Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 26 Aug. 2022 Some studies have begun to show the 100-year flood not only is a misnomer, but that odds of one hitting are far greater than 1% per year. Julie Jag, The Salt Lake Tribune, 25 Aug. 2022 The term is a bit of a misnomer, because quiet quitters aren’t walking away from their jobs. Taylor Telford, Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2022 Actually, suggesting that this type of AI will perhaps only be adopted once it is seen as ready for prime time is a bit of a misnomer. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 5 July 2022 For the musical tourist, the problem with Aspen is that its title is a misnomer.New York Times, 5 Aug. 2022 Sorry to burst that balloon but this myth of predictability is a misnomer. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 25 July 2022 Although this picture is described as a deep-field image, this is actually a misnomer, says Becky Smethurst, an astrophysics researcher at the University of Oxford. Fionna M. D. Samuels, Scientific American, 21 July 2022 The name is a misnomer; the oil comes from Texas but also from other US oilfields, and is then refined in the Midwest. Samanth Subramanian, Quartz, 15 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English misnoumer, from Anglo-French mesnomer, from mes- mis- + nomer to name, from Latin nominare — more at nominate