To understand or explain something in a wrong way; to get the meaning of something backwards or incorrectly.
From the prefix 'mis-' (wrongly) combined with 'interpret' (from Latin 'interpretari' meaning 'to explain or translate'). The prefix flips the meaning to 'explain wrongly'.
Historians now think many historical events were simply misinterpreted ancient records—that famous 'Roman dancing plague' of 1518 was probably epilepsy, not mass hysteria, showing how wrong meanings can spread for centuries.
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