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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

miss

/mɪs/
To fail to hit, catch, grasp, etc.

    Etymology graph

    • inherited
    • borrowed
    • derived
    • parts
    • meaning component
    • sound component
    • related
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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    Verb from Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), from Proto-West Germanic *missijan, from Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change, exchange, trade”). Cognate with West Frisian misse (“to miss”), Dutch missen (“to miss”), German missen (“to miss”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish miste (“to lose”), Swedish missa (“to miss”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Icelandic missa (“to lose”) and Latin mittere (“to send, let go”).

    Noun from Middle English misse, mis, from Old English miss (“loss, absence”), from Proto-West Germanic *miss, from Proto-Germanic *miss- (“loss”). Cognate with Scots miss (“a loss, want, cause of grief or mourning”), Middle High German misse, mis (“lack, missing, absence”), Icelandic missir (“loss”). Related also to Scots mis (“wrongdoing, sin, guilt”), Dutch mis (“misdeed, wrongdoing, mistake”), Middle Low German misse (“sin, wrong”).

    Etymology 2

    From mistress.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • rootProto-Indo-European*meyth₂- “to exchange”
    • rootProto-Indo-European*mey- (change)
    • inheritedMiddle Englishmissen
      • inheritedOld Englishmissan “to miss, escape the notice of a person”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*missijan
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*missijaną “to miss, go wrong, fail”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishmisse
        • inheritedOld Englishmiss “loss, absence”
          • derivedProto-West Germanic*miss
            • inheritedProto-Germanic*miss- “loss”
    • derivedEnglishmistress “A woman, specifically one with great control, authority or ownership.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishmaistresse
        • borrowedOld Frenchmaistresse

    Related: West Frisian misse, Dutch missen, German missen, Danish miste, Swedish missa, Icelandic missa, Latin mittere, Scots miss, Middle High German misse, Icelandic missir, Scots mis, Dutch mis, Middle Low German misse

    Meanings

    verb
    1. To fail to hit, catch, grasp, etc.
    2. To avoid hitting.
    3. To fail to achieve or attain.
    4. To fail to experience, attend, partake, take advantage of, etc.
    5. To avoid or escape.
    6. To become aware of the loss or absence of; to feel the want or need of, sometimes with regret; to feel sadness at the absence of somebody or something.
    noun
    1. A failure to physically hit.
    2. A failure to obtain or accomplish something; a failure to succeed.
    3. An act of avoidance (usually used with the verb give).
    4. Someone or something whose loss or absence is felt.
    5. The situation where an item is not found in a cache and therefore needs to be explicitly loaded.
    6. A foul shot that fails to hit the target ball, where the player has, in the referee's judgement, not made every effort to play a legal shot; in addition to conceding points for the foul, the player can be made to play the shot again.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: miss