miscommand

English edit

Etymology edit

Pronunciation edit

(verb) IPA^(key): /ˌmɪskəˈmænd/, /ˌmɪskəˈmɑːnd/
(noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪskəˌmænd/, /ˈmɪskəˌmɑːnd/

Verb edit

miscommand (third-person singular simple present miscommands, present participle miscommanding, simple past and past participle miscommanded)

To command incompetently.
- 1659, Richard Baxter, Five Disputations of Church-government and Worship, page 423:
  If a Governour make a new Sacrament, I will not obey, because: his command is null, and the thing simply evil. If he miscommand a Circumstance of Time, or Place, or Gesture, I will consider the consequents.
- 1808, Joseph Hall, The Works:
  If either the superiors miscommand, or the inferiors disobey, it is an affront to peace.
- 1904, Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, page 609:
  The truant skipped his drill, but had an eye no man could turn aside or miscommand for where the quarry of his spirit lay.
- 1980, Executive Summary of the Working Conference on Advanced Electrotechnology Applications to Nuclear Power Plants, page 32:
  Also at this time we would question the engineers about the failsafe mode that the satellite must go into in case an operator miscommands, or a failure of a redundant system in an attitude control system

Noun edit

miscommand (countable and uncountable, plural miscommands)

Incompetence at commanding.
- 1873 December 27, “Ther National Guard”, in The United States Army and Navy Journal, volume 11, number 26, page 316:
  This applied to the privates in the ranks, and to officers in the highest grades. The attempt to smother up and to stifle investigation ordered to be made late the miscommand of its members who have brought disgrace upon its name, gives us a painful reply.
- 1961, The Reader's Digest - Volume 78, page 204:
  While he finished that glass, he managed to pay devoted attention to both charmers, meanwhile spieling away with a masterly miscommand of English to the large group that now surrounded him.
- 1998, Coles Notes, The Iliad, page 28:
  Thersites , a chronic complainer, scolds Agamemnon for miscommand, and is rebuked and beaten by Odysseus.

Anagrams edit

commandism