'misspeak' originates from Old English elements 'mis-' and the verb 'speak' (Old English 'sprecan'), where 'mis-' meant 'wrongly' or 'badly' and 'sprecan' meant 'to speak'.

'speak' changed from Old English 'sprecan' to Middle English forms like 'speken' and eventually became the modern English 'speak'. The compound 'misspeak' is a modern English formation by combining the negative prefix 'mis-' with 'speak'.

Initially it literally meant 'to speak wrongly' and over time the usage has remained similar but broadened to include both 'state something incorrectly' and 'say something unintentionally embarrassing'.