misfactor

English

Etymology

mis- +‎ factor

Pronunciation

• (verb) IPA^(key): /mɪsˈfæktə(ɹ)/
• (noun) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪsfæktə(ɹ)/

Verb

misfactor (third-person singular simple present misfactors, present participle misfactoring, simple past and past participle misfactored)

1. (mathematics) To err when determining the factors of.
   • 2010, “Calculus”, in A to Z Teacher Stuff:

     This teacher grades only on correct answer; there are no partial points for right completion but wrong answer. This frustrates me beyond belief; isn't the point of going to school to learn and be able to SHOW you know HOW to do the math even if somewhere along the line you misfactored or transposed numbers or whatever.

   • 2019, Yoon Ha Lee, “The Robot's Math Lessons”, in Hexarchate Stories:

     After a moment's thought, the robot wrote out a polynomial and deliberately misfactored it.

2. To incorrectly analyze the role or importance of (something that influences or determines a result).
   • 2014 December 15, Robert Woolley, “How To Recognize (and Beat) the Unbluffable Player”, in Poker News:

     “The vengefulness it must take to call me with that hand!” says Coren Mitchell. “It’s only because of the cage. You would never call me with that if it wasn’t for the cage…. Oh, I misfactored the cage!”

3. To refactor incorrectly.
   • 2017 November 29, a...@littlepinkcloud.invalid, “how about eliminate the R words ?”, in comp.lang.forth (Usenet):

     On the other hand, I tend to think of ugly-but-descriptive-in-a-long-winded-way names as a red flag meaning "Here be dragons!" In other words, if you've had to spell out a word's behaviour in its name, you've perhaps misfactored something.

Noun

misfactor (plural misfactors)

1. A person or thing that causes or influences something to its detriment.
   • 1968, Robert T. Elson, TIME INC. The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, page 88:

     None of these words, of course, was actually printed in direct application, but at least half of the duty of a Time writer under Hadden was to find ways and means of calling nonfactors, misfactors or malefactors such names without literally doing so, and to help vent B.H.'s impatience with human folly and fraud.

   • 2005, SM Lee, “A Exploratory Study on the Efficient Strategies for Cross-Cultural in the Hospitality Industry”, in The Journal of the Korea Contents Association:

     The employees express their perceptions and feelings in their own langage, the discussions were videotaped, and used for decreasing misfactors such as misperceptions, misevaluations, and mistrust.