Misinformation is like information, but not as true. It consists of data that does not correspond to actual events.

It is also one of the coolest words ever.

It is the longest word starting with either n or m in the English language. Largely because of this, it is a palindrome, and was Sir Isaac Newton's favorite word.

The first recorded appearance of the word 'misinformation' was in London, England in 1852, when King Philip XXXII referred to Darwin's theory of natural selection as "Crap and misinformation". He later changed this to simply crap. But the new word lived on, next appearing in the works of David Hume and Adam Smith, who considered all existing economic theories to be just this. After they were burned at the stake, it fell into general disuse until the mid 1950s, when it was one of the few hip words that survived the beat slang era.

It has found its niche in the computer age, where it is used on a regular basis, often in reference to pages much like this one.

Mis*in`for*ma"tion (?), n.

Untrue or incorrect information.

Bacon.

 

© Webster 1913.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.