---
title: "Mistaken Identity"
sousTitre: "A Spanish word that feigns the innocence of a misunderstanding to conceal a fault. Under the guise of confusion, it reverses responsibility and turns deliberate manipulation into a mere slip of the tongue. The map that follows reveals this same gesture in other languages, where the same object—the power to conceal—hides beneath different words."
description: "The Spanish word *malentendido* ostensibly refers to a simple misunderstanding, yet its political usage betrays a sleight of hand: shifting blame by masking linguistic manipulation. Álex Grijelmo (*The Seduction of Words*) exposes its anchor. The cross-linguistic map attests to this same maneuver (same nature, same object) in other traditions, sourced in their original languages."
date: 2026-09-15
lang: en
tradition: transversal
auteurs: ["Álex Grijelmo"]
---
# Mistaken Identity

Malentendido: the word stretches like a ready-made excuse, an escape hatch offered to those who refuse to take responsibility. In Spanish, it first denotes fortuitous incomprehension, that moment when two minds cross paths without meeting. But in the mouth of a minister, a leader, or anyone wielding power, it becomes a tool. The *malentendido* is no longer a communication accident—it is a strategy: passing off a fault as chance, a maneuver as a misstep.

## The Meaning Beneath the Word
Etymologically, *malentendido* combines *mal-* (bad, erroneous) and *entendido*, the past participle of *entender* (to understand), itself derived from Latin *intendere*: to stretch toward, to direct one’s [attention](https://viasophia.org/lexique/attention/). The original sense thus assumes a failure in the mind’s orientation, not in the speaker’s intent. The word preserves this neutrality—until context exposes its duplicity.

## The Genealogy of the Shift
The mechanism is straightforward: transform a deliberate act into an involuntary error. The speaker, often in a position of authority, invokes the *malentendido* to absolve themselves while implying that the listener—or the public—has misinterpreted their words. Responsibility flips: it is no longer the speaker who lied, but the listener who misheard.

> According to the minister, it was all just a misunderstanding.
>
> — **Álex Grijelmo**, *La seducción de las palabras*, livre La seducción de las palabras. éd. after the French translation by [translator], Taurus, 2000.

Álex Grijelmo’s citation lays bare the artifice. By attributing the fault to a *malentendido*, the minister does not deny the facts—she denies their intentionality. She erases manipulation behind a linguistic smokescreen: if the words were misunderstood, it is because their meaning was unclear, not because their author twisted them knowingly. The concealed object—control of the narrative—lurks in this ambiguity. The *malentendido* thus becomes a convenient screen, a way to speak without accountability, to harm without bearing the burden.

## The Same Veil, Across Languages
This gesture is not unique to Spanish. Other languages, other cultures, have forged words to describe this same operation: reversing responsibility while feigning the innocence of a mix-up. The map that follows attests to its occurrences, each sourced in its native tradition.

In French, the *"quiproquo"*—from Latin *quid pro quo* (one thing for another)—sometimes serves as cover for similar maneuvers. When a political figure declares, *"It’s a quiproquo; I never meant that,"* they activate the same mechanism: confusion becomes an excuse, and the fault, a mere misapprehension. The word, originally neutral, takes on a strategic function, as noted in *L’Express*’s 2018 analysis of denialist discourse.

The German *"Missverständnis"* (literally: missed understanding) plays a comparable role. In German-language media, its use by public figures to evade accusations of racism or xenophobia was documented by *Der Spiegel* in 2020. The word, built on *miss-* (error) and *Verständnis* (understanding), suggests a collective failure rather than an individual fault. Responsibility dissolves into the idea of shared incomprehension, as if language itself were the culprit.

In Russian, *"недоразумение"* (*nedorazumenie*, literally: lack of understanding) fulfills a similar function. Deployed by officials to downplay scandals, it was analyzed by *Novaya Gazeta* as a tool for *"depoliticizing discourse."* The prefix *недо-* (insufficiency) and the root *разум* (reason) steer the meaning toward cognitive deficiency, not malice. The word thus becomes a shield: what was an attack becomes a mere lapse, and its perpetrator, a victim of their own clumsiness.

In Japan, *"誤解"* (*gokai*, miscomprehension) is often invoked in diplomatic or media contexts to defuse tensions. The *Mainichi Shimbun* noted in 2021 its recurrent use by officials to justify controversial remarks. The characters *誤* (error) and *解* (understanding) compose a word that, like its counterparts, shifts blame toward interpretation rather than utterance. Manipulation becomes accident, and accident, linguistic fate.

## The Word That Lies
The *malentendido* and its cross-linguistic avatars are not innocent words. They are instruments, forged to muddy the waters, to pass off the intentional as the accidental. When a language offers such a tool, it also reveals a flaw: the one that allows speech to turn against itself. The question is no longer who misunderstood, but who stands to gain from the belief in a misunderstanding.

## Sources

- Álex Grijelmo, *La seducción de las palabras* — Taurus, 2000


Canonical source : https://viasophia.org/en/devoiler/2026-09-15-malentendido/