Misguide comes from mis- ('wrongly') + guide, from Old French guider, of Germanic origin, related to wit ('to know'). The etymological trail includes Old English mis- and Old French guider. As a verb, misguide means to lead in the wrong direction; to mislead. The same family is visible in derived forms such as misguidance, misguided, and misguider and related forms such as guide and misguidance. Morphologically, the word is built from the elements named in its history, so the modern form preserves a visible compound, prefix, or suffix structure.