misstep

n.

1. A misplaced or awkward step.
2. An instance of wrong or improper conduct; a blunder.

intr.v., -stepped, -step·ping, -steps.
To make a mistake.

noun

An act or thought that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right, or true: erratum, error, inaccuracy, incorrectness, lapse, miscue, mistake, slip, slip-up, trip. See correct/incorrect.

n

Definition: mistake, wrong move
Antonyms: success

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Origin: 1800

Was the new spirit of American independence making us kinder and gentler? Or were we merely anticipating the coming era of Victorian prudery on both sides of the Atlantic? Whatever the explanation, misstep was an American invention.

Misstep took the place of an older English term, false step, which in turn derived from French faux pas. Instead of being false, that is, the misstep was just a slip, a little mistake instead of something blatantly wrong. Forgiveness would be that much easier, and so would a new start.

And forgiveness might be needed, considering the meaning these words modestly concealed. In its early days, misstep was a euphemism for a euphemism. Like as not, misstep meant a young woman's "losing her virtue," as evidenced by her pregnancy. This is the misstep discussed in a publication of about 1800 from Walpole, New Hampshire. "The Squire," says The Spirit of the Farmers' Museum, and Lay Preacher's Gazette, "can Sit on the Sessions, and fine poor Girls for natural missteps." Similarly, at the end of the nineteenth century we find an article in Harper's Magazine that comments on Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles with a delicate mention of "the first misstep of Tess in the immaturity of her girlhood."

In the more sexually explicit twentieth century, that veiled meaning of misstep would be misunderstood. But we have plenty of ordinary slipups from which we hope to escape with the least possible amount of blame and embarrassment, so misstep finds itself still actively employed as a gentler alternative to mistake.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - fejltrin, bommert

Nederlands (Dutch)
misstap

Français (French)
n. - faux pas

Deutsch (German)
n. - Fehltritt

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - παραστράτημα, παρεκτροπή

Italiano (Italian)
passo falso

Português (Portuguese)
n. - passo em falso (m)

Русский (Russian)
ложный шаг, оступиться

Español (Spanish)
n. - paso en falso, tropezón, traspié, desliz

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - felsteg

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
失足, 失策, 过失

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 失足, 失策, 過失

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 발을 헛디딤, 실수

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 踏み誤り, 過失, 失策

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) خطوة خاطئه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צעד מוטעה, טעות‬

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