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Misuse vs Nonuse - What's the difference?

misuse | nonuse |

As nouns the difference between misuse and nonuse

is that misuse is an incorrect, improper or unlawful use of something while nonuse is the failure to make use of something.

As a verb misuse

is to use (something) incorrectly.

misuse

English

Etymology 1

(mis-) +

Noun

(en noun)
  • An incorrect, improper or unlawful use of something.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=June 4 , author=Lewis Smith , title=Queen's English Society says enuf is enough, innit? , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The Queen may be celebrating her jubilee but the Queen's English Society, which has railed against the misuse and deterioration of the English language, is to fold.}}

    Etymology 2

    From (mis-) +

    Verb

    (misus)
  • To use (something) incorrectly.
  • To abuse or mistreat (something or someone).
  • (obsolete) To abuse verbally, to insult.
  • *, II.3.7:
    • Socrates was brought upon the stage by Aristophanes, and misused to his face: but he laughed, as if it concerned him not […].

    nonuse

    English

    Alternative forms

    *non-use

    Noun

    (-)
  • The failure to make use of something.
  • *2011 , (Steven Pinker), The Better Angels of Our Nature , Penguin 2012, p. 771:
  • *:Sacred values, and the taboos that protect them, can be attached to resources that we decide are genuinely precious, such as identifiable lives, national borders, and the nonuse of chemical and nuclear weapons.