misnomer 'misconception'

[Beverly Flanigan]

Our grad student Linguistic Society puts out a monthly newsletter called
"The Gnome"--for obvious reasons.  An accompanying drawing has a gnome
standing by a tree. . . .

At 01:29 PM 10/22/2004, you wrote:
>In a message dated Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:24:02 -0400,  "Dennis R. Preston"
><preston at MSU.EDU> curmudgeoned:
>
> >  Shame on you! You have misconstrued. This is clearly 'misgnomer,'
> >  homophonous, to be sure, but obviously meaning something like "bad
> >  knowledge."
>
>For "misgnomer" (analogous to "misanthrope", "misogynist") the best example
>is Mrs. Weasley of the Harry Potter books, who in _Chamber of Secrets_
>insisted
>on having Harry, although a guest, join the Weasley brothers in helping to
>degnome the garden.
>
>(Wizards prefer not to use pesticides because of environmental effects
>unknown to us muggles, e.g. Hagrid, also in _Chamber of Secrets_ , was
>only able to
>find buy slug repellant that was flesh-eating.)
>
>        - James A. Landau