Definition:
: neglect or wrong performance of official duty: misconduct or maladministration by a public official
About the Word:
Misprision has had a variety of meanings over the past few hundred years, but the one that seems the most useful is that which describes the dereliction of duty on the part of a public official. Much as the Inuit and Yupik-speaking people are purported to have hundreds of words for snow (they don't), and the English-speaking people are thought to have hundreds of words for being drunk (we do), it often feels as if we should have a multitude of words for political malfeasance. But we don't have that many, so let's make use of misprision.
Example:
"If one knows a counterfeitor of the coin, and does not discover him, that is a misprision." — John Comyns and Anthony Hammond, A Digest of the Laws of England, 1822
