One misgiving is better than two

I’d never heard “misgiving” as a singular before this NPR segment on implanting electrodes in the brains of quadriplegics:

“This misgiving comes from the very person who created Matt Nagle’s thought machine ... ” (at 3:05 into the segment)

I thought it was what Bill Walsh calls a false singular (Walsh’s example is from a radio ad that urged listeners to “donate a school supply.”

But M-W has misgiving:

“a feeling of doubt or suspicion especially concerning a future event”

So does the OED:

A feeling of mistrust, apprehension, or loss of confidence. Freq. in pl. ...
1781 W. COWPER Convers. 770 Conscious of her crimes, she feels instead A cold misgiving, and a killing dread.

Posted by Nathan Bierma on 04/02 at 04:19 PM
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