miscarriage
UK[ˌmɪsˈkær.ɪdʒ]US[ˈmɪsˌker.ɪdʒ]
n
The process of giving birth to a baby before it is able to survive, especially before the 24th week of pregnancy.
n
A failure to achieve the correct or intended result of a plan, action, or process.
Morpheme Breakdown
mis
carriage
mis
bad/wrong
carriage
act of carrying
Etymology
The word "miscarriage" is a compound formed within English from the native prefix "mis-" and the noun "carriage." Its original, literal 16th-century sense was "mismanagement" or "a wrong carrying out," applying the concrete idea of faulty transport to abstract processes. This logic was then extended to the biological realm, where it came to denote the "wrong carrying" or failure to carry a pregnancy to term. Thus, the modern medical and figurative meanings both stem from the core concept of a process of carrying that has gone badly or incorrectly.
Analysis
Structure: mis (bad/wrong) + carriage (act of carrying)
mis: From Old English and Proto-Germanic, a prefix meaning "badly," "wrongly," or "ill." It functions as a negative or pejorative modifier.
carriage: From Old North French cariage (the act of carrying in a vehicle), derived from Latin carrus (wheeled vehicle). In this compound, it functions as a noun meaning "the act or process of carrying."
Examples
She suffered a miscarriage in her first trimester.
The miscarriage of justice led to an innocent person's imprisonment.
The project was a complete miscarriage of their original ambitious vision.