Does anyone use "misconstruct" (instead of "misconstrue") anymore?

Question

Is it ever correct to say:

I misconstruct the truth

That is, to use misconstruct as a synonym for misconstrue?

My research indicates that misconstruct was once used, i.e. is now archaic:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misconstruct

while other dictionaries just present misconstrue as a synonym without further details.

Google confirms the usage has waned in recent decades:

But given the ambiguity and contradiction I found among dictionaries, I wonder: is misconstruct still used by native speakers anywhere? How would contemporary native speakers react to its use, as in the example above?

Answer 1

misconstruct
verb [with object] rare

Misconstrue (something):

Example sentences:
'I dread that it might be seen and misconstructed'
'Utilitarianism in Victorian England was often misconstructed as essentially anti-art, indeed as the doctrine of cultural philistines.'
'She's claiming the things she said were ‘misused and misconstructed,’ by Vanity Fair.'
'Such misogynist rituals must not, however, be misconstructed as "culture" but must be challenged as basic human rights concerns.'

[Definitions from both the British & World English and US English versions of the ODO are all but identical.]

It would appear from the quoted dictionary definitions that it could be correct to say

"I misconstruct the truth"

Whether it would be sensible or appropriate to say it is another question!

Personally, I don't recall ever having heard it, and when I first read it above, I assumed that it referred to a mistake in the construction of something. [I'm a native British English speaker: effectively all-but monolingual, despite have passed French GCE in the '60s & had German lessons in the '70s!]

Answer 2

I think misconstruction is still understood as a noun form of the same word. (Better than "misconstrual", for example. [e.g. my/your spellchecker liked the former, but not the latter!]. So the verb must be allowed, I think.