Misspeak 0
Contrary to my beliefs, there is such a word, and it has a history that predates political apologias.
Howsomever, what it means is not how it’s being used today, which seems to be defined as “I didn’t think my lie would be caught out and I’m not going to admit I was lying“:
But we all know what went on in Hillary’s case, don’t we? I’m not sure there is a word that specifically means ’embellishing an anecdote in order to make oneself sound more interesting’, but we need a word for that and ‘misspeak’ will do as well as any. (‘Embell-self-glamming’ would be more fun, but its construction sounds a little German. And the Germans probably don’t do it. They’re more likely to need a word which means ‘downplaying an anecdote in order to make oneself sound slightly less efficient’ and I expect they’ve got one. Coined years ago, neatly prepared in case of future-use requirement.)
