Etymology

disinformation

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Today it means: False information intentionally disseminated to deliberately confuse or mislead; intentional misinformation. Full definition →

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The story

Composed of dis- + information. Attested in the sense “intentional misinformation” in English from 1939. A different usage of disinformation occurred earlier, as early as 1887, as a simple synonym of misinformation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.