Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb colloquial To
underestimate severely.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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- Maybe, as Bush said in his final press conference, we "misunderestimate" - them.
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At least he didn't ask the kids not to "misunderestimate" their potential!
Obama speech to school children: 'You make your own future' 2009
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But to pretend that Palin isn't part of the ruling elite (and thus ostensibly "part of the problem") as opposed to her self-construction as an anti-elite crusader, is to dangerously "misunderestimate" (to quote the quintessential example) the lockstep power of the media in constructing our shared reality.
Randall Amster: First Amendment Remedies: Hey, Sarah, Refudiate This Randall Amster 2011
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To be sure, one must never "misunderestimate" Americans 'eagerness to put ignoramuses in office, though with the Tea Party biting at its heels, the Republicans' offerings this time around may have gone a step or three too far.
Andrew Levine: The Effectiveness Gap Andrew Levine 2010
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She also encited George W. Bush's "misunderestimate" as a speculant examplar of the reclectorance of the English Language.
Dylan Brody: In Defensity of Sarah Palin Dylan Brody 2010
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Problem is, the Democrats have borrowed one too many pages from the Bush Crime Family's playbook and now totally "misunderestimate" their constituents.
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So she tried again: "'Refudiate,' 'misunderestimate' ...," she good-naturedly tweeted.
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The model for refudiate will likely not be outlandish malapropisms such "misunderestimate," which enter and are laughed out of the public forum in a matter of days.
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She also encited George W. Bush's "misunderestimate" as a speculant examplar of the reclectorance of the English Language.
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The model for refudiate will likely not be outlandish malapropisms such "misunderestimate," which enter and are laughed out of the public forum in a matter of days.
john commented on the word misunderestimate
“‘Sometimes you misunderestimated me,’ Bush told the Washington press corps. This is not the first time our president has worried about misunderestimation, so it’s fair to regard this not as a slip of the tongue, but as something the president of the United States thinks is a word. The rhetoric is the one part of the administration we’re surely going to miss. We are about to enter a world in which our commander in chief speaks in full sentences, and I do not know what we’re going to do to divert ourselves on slow days.�?
The New York Times, He’s Leaving. Really. , by Gail Collins, January 14, 2009
January 16, 2009
reesetee commented on the word misunderestimate
Honestly. I won't miss it.
January 16, 2009
yarb commented on the word misunderestimate
I think Gail Collines has missed the point completely. He doesn't "think it's a word"! Isn't it obvious that his use of "misunderestimate" at his farewell press conference is a jocular reference to the verbal gaffes he's become famous for?
Incidentally I'm not so sure that some of his catalogue of pisspronunciations weren't scripted to reinforce the "folksy" image.
January 16, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word misunderestimate
Could be, yarb. But maybe not—no one can say but the man himself, and does anyone really believe anything he says anymore? Is it not clear that the first time he said it, at least, he did think it was a word?
Besides, I think Collins has tongue firmly implanted in cheek—she seems to in the rest of the article.
My favorite sentence: "And the last time George W. Bush did not factor into our lives feels like around 1066."
January 16, 2009
whichbe commented on the word misunderestimate
I agree with yarb on this one. One of the phrases I would love to bury, though it never will, is "our commander in chief".
January 16, 2009
rolig commented on the word misunderestimate
Technically, the US president is not "our commander in chief" unless "we" are members of the US Armed Forces. The president is the servant and employee, not the commander, of U.S. citizens, which is a concept Bush never really understood.
January 16, 2009
michaelhvrt commented on the word misunderestimate
I hate to disappoint you guys but Bush didn't make up misunderestimate. Here are a few instances of it's use far before him.
1897 ...is almost sure to misunderstand and misunderestimate the significance of the question at hand. — The Outlook, American Diplomacy on the Bosphorous April 17, 1897
1975 Now in the very earliest years of the eighteenth century it is understandable that, owing to the inevitable, due to our never-to-be-misunderestimated Frederick the Gross... — Thomas Merton, My Argument With the Gestapo 1975.
1980 And I think after Three Mile Island, not only does the NRC itself understand that it sadly misunderestimated the number of ways in ... — Accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Powerplant: Oversight Hearings 1980
1992 ...not only the disciples within their accounts, had seriously misunderestimated the life and teaching of Jesus. — Adelbert Denaux, John and the Synoptics 1992
1997 Whatever happened to Espy? Well, what happened to Espy is what happens to people whether you're a former congressman or not. If you understand the power -- if you misunderestimate the power of the intense bureaucracy in these agencies and departments and federal institutions, you go, they stay.. — John Conyers (D-MI), DELIVERS REMARKS TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE'S COALITION OF MINORITY EMPLOYEES August 19, 1997
It is:
1. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To underestimate by failing to understand.
2. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To hold in low esteem, yet still expect too much.
3. (colloquial, malapropism, or, intentionally incorrect) To insufficiently or incorrectly underestimate.
Oh yeah, I am not a subject under military jurisdiction. So, the President is not my Commander in Chief. And by the way does anyone want to tell the class what the gold fringe around the American Flag represents.
January 23, 2009
jmjarmstrong commented on the word misunderestimate
JM delights in no longer needing to misunderestimate the US President
February 1, 2009
curly commented on the word misunderestimate
A powerful eggcorn, coined by the former malapropist-in-chief.
It has one meaning, opposite to its apparent meaning. it is a synonym for underestimate, but is used in ironic contexts.
July 3, 2009