Etymology

misdemeanor

mis·de·mean·or
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Today it means: A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony. Full definition →

English demeanor ← Middle English mys- ← Old English mis-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*meyth₂-
  3. Proto-Germanic*missaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*missa-
  5. Proto-West Germanic*missa-
  6. Old Englishmis-
  7. Middle Englishmys-
  8. Englishmis-
  9. Englishdemeanor
  10. English todaymisdemeanor

From mis- + demeanor.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.