The corresponding adjective derived from the verb “misuse”?

adjectivesderivational-morphologysingle-word-requestssynonyms

From the word abuse we can derive the adjective abusive by adding the suffix -ive.

Can we form an adjective starting from misuse? If so, what is the adjectival form of the word misuse? Is it misusive?

If you think this is not correct, do you have any suggestions, or do you know any synonyms for it that don’t share the same root?

Best Answer

I don't see it in any online dictionary or law dictionary I've checked so far, and the spellchecker here certainly doesn't care for it. However, this adjective is used. Not finding it in a dictionary, I would avoid it for common usage. It's rare in print, but it may be more common in legal language or specialized fields.

Subsection 245(4) is where the concept of abusive avoidance transaction originates but instead of using abusive it uses misuse. The simultaneity of the verb misuse and the adjective abusive has to be acknowledge otherwise most of the subsequent cases would be using "misusive avoidance transaction" as opposed to "abusive avoidance transaction". That would indeed be an uncomfortable outcome. Playing with Players: The Sacred and Profane Meanderings of a Tax Auditor (2020) p.168

...it has been held that invocation of privilege would be "frivolous" or "misusive". (1992) ref

Children's awareness and acceptance of their own sexuality will impact on their ability to accurately recognize a sexually misusive advance... ref (1990)

the speech-language pathologist, whose responsibility is evaluating and treating specific abusive/misusive behaviors of the speaking voice. Voice Therapy (2017)

I would normally have read the last example and assumed misusive would be found under misuse. It's of note that your question and both the first and last examples contrast misusive and abusive.

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