miscredit

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to give credit or attribution incorrectly

   Several articles miscredit the discovery to a researcher who joined the project years later.

2. 2
   verb

   to bring discredit upon or damage the reputation of someone or something (rare)

   The false accusation could miscredit an otherwise careful investigator.

3. 3
   noun

   discredit, loss of reputation, or a cause of unfavorable judgment (rare)

   The captain feared that a slow voyage would bring miscredit on the crew.

Formed from mis- ("wrongly, badly") + credit. Its senses follow two meanings of credit: assigning authorship or merit, and esteem or reputation. Thus something may be miscredited to the wrong person, or may bring miscredit on someone's name.

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