Etymology Dictionary

AMISS,  adv. wrongly.  (E. and Scand.)   α. In later authors awkwardly used as a sb.; thus 'urge not my amiss;' Shak. Sonn. 151.   But properly an adverb, as in 'That he ne doth or saith somtym amis;' Chaucer, C. T. 11092.   The error was due to the fact that misse, without a-, meant 'an error' in early times, as will appear.   β. Amiss stands for M.E. on misse, lit. in error, where on (from A.S. on) has the usual sense of 'in,' and passes into the form a-, as in so many other cases; cf. abed, afoot, asleep.   γ. Also misse is the dat. case from nom. misse, a dissyllabic word, not used as a sb. in A.S., but borrowed from Icel. missa, a loss; also used with the notion of 'error' in composition, as in Icel. mis-taka, to take in error, whence E. mistake.   The M.E. misse hence acquired the sense of 'guilt,' 'offence,' as in 'to mende my misse,' to repair my error; Will. of Palerne, 532.   See Miss.