Past tense of the word 'misunderstood'.

Why do you think it shouldn't be?
It's a regular verb which takes 'ed' at the end.

Yes:
(present) miscomprehend- (past) miscomprehended- (past participle) miscomprehended

paco

If there is such a word as "miscomprehend," it must be pretty rare. I can't find it in my dictionary. The normal term is "misunderstand" (with "misunderstood" as the past tense and past perfect participle).

Not so rare that it wouldn't be found in a dictionary.
What kind of a dinctionary do you have?

The verb is indeed a correct English word, though it would not be so often used.

The definition by OED is as follows;

miscomprehend
transitive verb; comprehend wrongly, misunderstand.
1813 T. Busby Lucretius I. ii. Comm. vi, :
"The preceptor of Nero seems to have miscomprehended the poet."
1899 Baring-Gould Bk. of West I. 16, :

Hi Paco

I think that it isn't used to often probably because of its length. I bet that if it were shorter it'd be used much more frequently. "Misunderstand" is just a very common word and is easily and quickly pronounced and is widely used as well, so it's used quite often.

Mav

I think your guess is right.

Another reason would be 'comprehend' is a word of French/Latin origin while 'understand' is Teutonic.
English speakers seem to prefer Teutonic words to French words as the words used in their everyday speech.

paco

Thank you for the replies (this was the guest that posted this question, I have now registered~).

This came up when my friend and I were having a discussion, and I said I had 'miscomprehended' her. She said it was not in the dictionary, and lo', it was not. I had checked the root word and it did not give a past tense. So, in order to clear up confusion, I came to you all.

T

Pity. 'Miscomprehend' might be quite useful, in everyday English. It has the interesting nuance 'to believe, consciously and mistakenly, that one has understood XYZ'.

To miscomprehend is always to misunderstand; but to misunderstand is only sometimes to miscomprehend.

You might say, for instance:

'Ezra Pound's translations of oriental poetry are based on a miscompr