misquote

I haven't much to say about this word. In fact, I freely admit that I only use it because it fits into this week's theme. Let's face it, the word is awfully straightforward, almost clinical. We all know what it means, and it can be explained far more easily than even very common words, such as "light" or "burn." These words have all kinds of complicated connotations; "misquote" simply doesn't. However, being the extreme nitpicker that I am, I will take this opportunity to make a distinction. We all know that many quotations, particularly those with historical significance, are in the common consciousness assigned to the wrong men and women. "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," many of us have been told originated with Mark Twain. Apparently the quotation actually comes from Benjamin Franklin, in a November 1789 letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy. To say the quotation comes from Mark Twain, however, is not to misquote, but to misattribute. (The use of "misquote" for "misattribute," of course, is another instance of misattribution, in that one incorrectly attributes a meaning to a word.) To misquote, of course, is simply to incorrectly reproduce the contents of a quotation.

I promise I am not always this anal. But if one will snobbishly correct another on the origin of a quote, I would consider it no small recovery for the accused to come back with, "Actually, I didn't misquote. I misattributed."