Etymology: Perhaps inferred < miste, past tense and past participle of miss v.¹; compare the parallel development of Middle Low German (rare) misten, Old Swedish mista (Swedish mista), Old Danish miste (Danish miste). An alternative explanation is that the form in the quot. is a past participle (with ellipsis of auxiliary verb: perhaps the -e of sholde having absorbed an unstressed form of have).The Older Scots form mist in quot. a1525 has sometimes been adduced as a later parallel development, inferred in the same way from the past tense and past participle of miss v.¹ However, it is perhaps an early example of a contraction of miss it (compare the later Scots quots. below):a1525 Bk. Sevyne Sagis 240, in W. A. Craigie Asloan MS (1925) II. 8 With þat þe barne scho wald haf kist He threwe þe face and gart hir mist.1755 R. Forbes Shop-bill in tr. Ovid Ajax his Speech (new ed.) 41 I do live upo Tower-hill, Hard by the house o' Robie Mill, just i' the nuik, Ye canna' miss't fan 'ere you will, the sign's a buik.1918 E. S. Rae Private John MʽPherson 27 ‘Weel, Mains,’ he said, ‘it's temp'in', an' A dinna like tae mis't, Bit A dinna think A'll tak' it, 'caus' A ha'e a thocht tae list.’

Etymology: < Old French miste light monastic meal (see mixtum n.) or its etymon post-classical Latin mistum (from late 11th cent. in British sources), variant of mixtum mixtum n. Compare post-classical Latin mixtare to take breakfast (mid 12th cent. in a British source).