disinformation

English

WOTD – 18 September 2015

English Wikipedia has an article on:

disinformation

Etymology

Composed of dis- +‎ information, a calque of Russian дезинформа́ция (dezinformácija),^[1] a word coined by Joseph Stalin c. 1923 (see the Wikipedia article). Attested in this sense in English from 1939. A morphologically-identical "disinformation" occurred earlier as a simple synonym of misinformation.^[2] Doublet of dezinformatsiya, an unadapted borrowing from Russian.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪsɪnfəˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/
(US) IPA^(key): /dɪsˌɪnfɚˈmeɪʃən/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

disinformation (usually uncountable, plural disinformations)

False information intentionally disseminated to deliberately confuse or mislead; intentional misinformation.
Fabricated or deliberately manipulated content. Intentionally created conspiracy theories or rumors.

Derived terms

Translations

intentionally false information

Albanian: dezinformacion m
Arabic: مَعْلُومَات مُضَلِّلَة f pl (maʕlūmāt muḍallila)
Armenian: ապատեղեկատվություն (hy) (apateġekatvutʻyun)
Azerbaijani: dezinformasiya
Belarusian: дэзінфарма́цыя f (dezinfarmácyja), дэзынфарма́цыя f (dezynfarmácyja)
Bulgarian: дезинформа́ция f (dezinformácija)
Catalan: desinformació f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 假情報／假情报 (jiǎqíngbào), 訛傳／讹传 (zh) (échuán), 謊報／谎报 (zh) (huǎngbào)
Czech: dezinformace (cs) f
Danish: misinformation c
Dutch: desinformatie (nl) f
Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
Estonian: desinformatsioon
Finnish: disinformaatio (fi), harhatiedotus
French: désinformation (fr) f, mésinformation (fr) f
Georgian: დეზინფორმაცია (dezinpormacia)
German: Desinformation (de) f
Greek: παραπληροφόρηση (el) f (paraplirofórisi)
Hebrew: דִּיסְאִינְפוֹרְמַצְיָה (he) f (disinformátsya)
Hindi: दुस्सूचना m (dussūcnā)
Hungarian: dezinformáció (hu), félrevezetés (hu)
Irish: bréagaisnéis f, bréageolas m
Italian: disinformazione (it) f, controinformazione (it) f, misinformazione (it) f
Japanese: 偽情報 (にせじょうほう, nisejōhō), 誤報 (ja) (ごほう, gohō)
Kazakh: дезинформация (dezinformasiä)
Khmer: ព័ត៌មានមិនពិត (pɔədɑɑmiən mɨn pɨt)
Korean: 역정보(逆情報) (yeokjeongbo), 오보(誤報) (ko) (obo)
Kyrgyz: дезинформация (dezinformatsiya)
Latvian: dezinformācija f
Lithuanian: dezinformacija f
Macedonian: дезинформација f (dezinformacija)
Malay: maklumat palsu
Norwegian:
Bokmål: desinformasjon m

Nynorsk: desinformasjon m
Persian: دروغ‌رسانی (dorôğ-resâni), دروغ‌پراکنی (dorôğ-parâkani)
Polish: dezinformacja (pl) f
Portuguese: desinformação (pt) f
Romanian: dezinformație f, dezinformare (ro) f
Russian: дезинформа́ция (ru) f (dezinformácija), де́за (ru) f (déza) (colloquial)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: дезинформа́ција f

Roman: dezinformácija (sh) f
Slovak: dezinformácia f
Slovene: dezinformácija f
Spanish: desinformación (es) f
Swedish: desinformation (sv) c
Tajik: маълумоти дурӯғ (maʾlumot-i durüġ)
Thai: please add this translation if you can
Turkish: dezenformasyon (tr)
Turkmen: dezinformasiýa
Ukrainian: дезінформа́ція f (dezinformácija), дезінформува́ння n (dezinformuvánnja)
Uzbek: dezinformatsiya
Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Verb

disinformation (third-person singular simple present disinformations, present participle disinformationing, simple past and past participle disinformationed)

(transitive) To use disinformation.
A country cannot disinformation its way out of fallen soldiers.

Related terms

References

^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “disinformation”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
^ “disinformation”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.