misattribute

Other forms: misattributed; misattributing; misattributes

To misattribute is to give the wrong person credit for doing something. If you misattribute the "To be, or not to be" speech to Homer Simpson, your teacher will probably laugh — and then gently correct you.

As well as giving Shakespeare full credit for writing so many memorable lines, attribute is also used to ascribe the cause of something, and misattribute means getting it wrong. For example, you might misattribute the water on the basement floor to a recent rainstorm, when the true cause is your brother's science experiment in the laundry sink. The roots of misattribute are mis-, "wrong," and the Latin attribuere, "assign."