Miss | Etymology, Origin And Meaning Of Miss By Etymonline

AdvertisementRemove Ads

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Origin and history of miss

miss(v.)

Old English missan "fail to hit, miss (a mark); fail in what was aimed at; escape (someone's notice)," from Proto-Germanic *missjan "to go wrong" (source also of Old Frisian missa, Middle Dutch, Dutch missen, German missen "to miss, fail"), from *missa- "in a changed manner," hence "abnormally, wrongly," from PIE root *mei- (1) "to change, go, move." Reinforced or influenced by cognate Old Norse missa "to miss, to lack." Related: Missed; missing.

Sense of "fail to find" (someone or something) is by late 12c. Meaning "fail to note, perceive, or observe" is from early 13c. Meaning "fail to reach or attain what one wants" is from mid-13c. Sense of "perceive with regret the absence or loss of (something or someone)" is from c. 1300. Meaning "omit, leave out, skip" is by mid-14c. Sense of "to escape, avoid" is from 1520s.

Sense of "to not be on time for" is from 1823; to miss the boat in the figurative sense of "be too late for" is from 1929, originally nautical slang. To miss out (on) "fail to get" is by 1929.

miss(n.1)

late 12c., "loss, lack; " c. 1200, "regret occasioned by loss or absence," from Old English miss "absence, loss," from source of missan "to miss" (see miss (v.)). Meaning "an act or fact of missing; a being without" is from late 15c.; meaning "a failure to hit or attain" is 1550s.

Phrase a miss is as good as a mile (1761) was originally an inch, in a miss, is as good as an ell (1610s; see ell). To give (something) a miss "to abstain from, avoid" is attested by 1919, perhaps from earlier use of the term in billiards, "to avoid hitting the object ball" (1807).

There are few of the niceties of the game that require more care than that of "giving a miss," and particularly when the player wishes to mask the ball. I recollect a game I played with Mr. Burke, of Cheltenham. He went off, and doubled, as was his custom, the red ball nearly over the baulk corner pocket. Not feeling disposed, against so skilful an antagonist, to run the risk of playing for a canon off his ball, I gave a miss, thinking I had masked the ball. His eye, keen and penetrating, discovered at a glance that I had just left him room to pass. He played at the red ball and holed his own ball off it by a fine cut, and scored forty points from the break. [Edward Russell Mardon, "Billiards," London, 1849]

also from late 12c.

miss(n.2)

"the term of honour to a young girl" [Johnson], originally (17c.) a shortened form of mistress (compare Mrs., pronounced mis-ez). By 1640s as "prostitute, concubine." By 1700 as "a young, unmarried woman."

Misses as a trade term (originally in the mail order business) for sizes or styles of clothes for girls from about 10 to 17 years old is by 1880. Miss America is from 1922 as the title bestowed on the winner of an annual nationwide U.S. beauty/talent contest. Earlier it meant "young American women generally" or "the United States personified as a young woman," and it also was the name of a fast motor boat. In the 1811 reprint of the slang dictionary, Miss Laycock is given as an underworld euphemism for "the monosyllable."

also from 17c.

Entries linking to miss

ell(n.1)

unit of measure, Old English eln, originally "forearm, length of the arm" (as a measure, anywhere from a foot and a half to two feet), from PIE root *el- "elbow, forearm." The exact distance varied, in part depending on whose arm was used as the base and whether it was measured from the shoulder to the fingertip or the wrist: the Scottish ell was 37.2 inches, the Flemish 27 inches. Latin ulna also was a unit of linear measure, and compare cubit. The modern English unit of 45 inches seems to have been set in Tudor times.

Whereas shee tooke an inche of liberty before, tooke an ell afterwardes [Humfrey Gifford, "A Posie of Gilloflowers," 1580].

missing(adj.)

"not present or found, absent," 1520s, present-participle adjective from miss (v.). Military sense of "not present after a battle but not known to have been killed or captured" is from 1845. As a noun by 1855.

Missing link was used in various figurative senses before is attested 1846 in reference to forms of plant and animal life [Chambers, "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation"]; in reference to a hypothetical creature between man and the apes, as a component of Darwin's theory of evolution, by 1860.

But then, where are the missing links in the chain of intellectual and moral being? What has become of the aspirants to the dignity of manhood whose development was unhappily arrested at intermediate points between the man and the monkey? It will not be doubted, we presume, that there exists at present an enormous gap between the intellectual capabilities of the lowest race of men and those of the highest race of apes; and if so, we ask again, why should the creatures intermediate to them—exalted apes or degraded men—have been totally exterminated, while their less worthy ancestors have successfully struggled through the battle of life? [William Hopkins, "Physical Theories of the Phenomena of Life," Fraser's Magazine, July, 1860]

In a popular religious tract of the late 1850s, "The Missing Link of the London Poor," the missing link was the Bible. Missing person, one who has disappeared and whose condition, whether alive or dead, is unknown, is by 1820.

• mistress
• Mrs.
• amiss
• hit-or-miss
• miscue
• misfire
• missy
• miz
• Ms.
• *mei-
• See All Related Words (12)

Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

More to explore

mistressc. 1300, "female teacher, governess; supervisor of novices in a convent," from Old French maistresse "mistress (lover); housekeeper; governess, female teacher" (Modern French maîtresse), fem. of maistre "master," from Latin magister "chief, head, director, teacher" (see master (nattendc. 1300, "be subject to" (obsolete); early 14c., "direct one's mind or energies" (archaic), from Old French atendre "to expect, wait for, pay attention" (12c., Modern French attendre) and directly from Latin attendere "give heed to," literally "to stretch toward," from ad "to, tohaveOld English habban "to own, possess; be subject to, experience," from Proto-Germanic *habejanan (source also of Old Norse hafa, Old Saxon hebbjan, Old Frisian habba, German haben, Gothic haban "to have"), from PIE root *kap- "to grasp." Not related to Latin habere, despite similatuffetObsolete except in the nursery rhyme "Little Miss Muffet" (1843), where it has been felt to mean "hassock, footstool."...LITTLE Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet And made of her knees such display That the old fashioned spider, Embarrassed...nancewhich was in use as an adjective meaning "effeminate" (applied to men) by 1904 in prison slang, a shortening of earlier Miss... Nancy, Miss, an opprobrious epithet for an exceedingly effeminate, over-nice young man....The original Miss Nancy, however, was a Mrs....bacheloretteMiss Cornelia. He is, and in all probability will remain one. Jessica....Miss Cornelia. Where did you ever pick up such a remarkable word? A bachelorette!...busTo miss the bus, in the figurative sense of "lose an opportunity," is from 1901, Australian English (OED has a figurative...miss the omnibus from 1886)....travellate 14c., "to journey," from travailen (1300) "to make a journey," originally "to toil, labor" (see travail). The semantic development may have been via the notion of "go on a difficult journey," but it also may reflect the difficulty of any journey in the Middle Ages. Replaced lass"young woman, girl," c. 1300, probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Swedish løsk kona "unmarried woman" [OED], but other sources say perhaps related to Old Norse löskr "idle, weak," West Frisian lask "light, thin." Liberman suggests Old Danish las "rag," and adds, "SlanforgetOld English forgietan "lose the power of recalling to the mind; fail to remember; neglect inadvertently," from for-, used here probably with privative force, "away, amiss, opposite" + gietan "to grasp" (see get (v.)). To "un-get," hence "to lose" from the mind. A common Germanic

Share miss

‘cite’Page URL:https://www.etymonline.com/word/missCopyHTML Link:<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/miss">Etymology of miss by etymonline</a>CopyAPA Style:Harper, D. (n.d.). Etymology of miss. Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved January 27, 2026, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/missCopyChicago Style:Harper Douglas, "Etymology of miss," Online Etymology Dictionary, accessed January 27, 2026, https://www.etymonline.com/word/miss.CopyMLA Style:Harper, Douglas. "Etymology of miss." Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/miss. Accessed 27 January, 2026.CopyIEEE Style:D. Harper. "Etymology of miss." Online Etymology Dictionary. https://www.etymonline.com/word/miss (accessed January 27, 2026).CopyRemove AdsAdvertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

TrendingDictionary entries near miss

• misremember
• misreport
• misrepresent
• misrepresentation
• misrule
• miss
• missal
• missel
• misshapen
• missile
• missing

AdvertisementClose

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

CloseABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ