Etymology

The Germanic root miss- is commonplace in OE in the guise of the pejorative prefix mis-, and in the v. missan ‘to miss; escape the notice of’, but as a n. it is attested only once, in the relatively late LS34 (Seven Sleepers 246 miss ‘loss’). ON input is sometimes adduced through various paths in order to account for this, cp. the OIcel nouns missa (fem.), missir (masc.) ‘loss’ and also miss in the phrase á miss ‘so as to miss’ (thus OED, MED). Cognate nouns are however widespread in WGmc, inc. in the sense found in Gaw (cp. MLG mis, MHG misse, mis, MDu misse ‘mistake, fault (etc.)’), and late OE miss is thus often treated as an indigenous word.

PGmc Ancestor

*miss-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

missa, missir ‘loss’; (á) miss 'so as to miss'
(ONP missa (1) (sb.); missir (sb.); miss (sb.);)

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel missa, Norw misse; Icel missir, Norw miss; Icel mis, Norw miss

OE Cognate

cp. mis- (prefix), missan 'to miss, escape the notice of'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CC1a

Attestation

Attested once in OE in the relatively late LS34 (Seven Sleepers); and common and widespread in ME.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 2391; Pe 262, 364; Pat 420

Osgood reads what others interpret as mysse (v.) in Pe 382 as an instance of this n.

Bibliography

MED mis (n.) , OED3 miss (n.1) , HTOED , Dance mysses, de Vries miss, á miss; missa; missir, Mag. mis (2); missa (1); missir, Orel *missō(n), AEW miss