Do you have to intend to hit a target to miss it?

Question

In order to "miss" something, would you have to intend to hit it in the first place?

Answer 1

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, miss has a lot of meanings:

miss

VERB

[WITH OBJECT]

1. Fail to hit, reach, or come into contact with (something aimed at)
   'a laser-guided bomb had missed its target'
   [no object] ‘he shot twice at the cashier, but missed both times’

   1.1 Pass by without touching; chance not to hit.
   ‘the plane narrowly missed the control tower’

   1.2 Fail to catch (something thrown or dropped)
   ‘Mandy missed the catch, and flung the ball back crossly’
   [no object] ‘Callison tried for a catch and missed’

2. Fail to notice, hear, or understand.
   ‘the villa is impossible to miss—it's right by the road’
   ‘these questions miss the point’

   2.1 Fail to attend, participate in, or watch (something one is expected to do or habitually does)
   ‘Teague looks certain to miss England's match against Fiji’

   2.2 Be too late to catch (a passenger vehicle or the post)
   ‘we'll miss the train if he doesn't hurry’

   2.3 Fail to see or have a meeting with (someone)
   ‘‘Potter's been here this morning?’ ‘You've just missed him.’’

   2.4 Not be able to experience or fail to take advantage of (an opportunity or chance)
   ‘don't miss the chance to visit the breathtaking Dolomites’
   [no object] ‘he failed to recover from a leg injury and missed out on a trip to Barcelona’

   2.5 Avoid; escape.
   ‘Christmas shoppers go out early to miss the crowds’

   2.6 (of a woman) fail to have (a monthly period)
   ‘how many periods have you missed?’
   [no object] ‘I think I'm pregnant—this is the second time I've missed’

Meaning 1 specifically mentions "something aimed at," but 1.1 would seem to refer to something not being aimed at. With meaning 1.2, we're back to trying (to catch) and not succeeding.

Meaning 2 again hints at being able to miss something without aiming for it -- one might, for example, waste a lot of time trying to get to San Francisco's Lombard street and completely miss the actual curviest street in the City.

So, I'm not sure that one needs to be aiming for something to miss it, but someone (the speaker -- not necessarily the one that did the missing) at least needs to know of the target (either before or after) for there to be a miss. That is, I might say "Can you believe that Joe went to Paris and missed seeing the Eiffel Tower?" Joe didn't miss it -- he didn't know about it so he can't have done the missing -- but we can recognize it for him.

And that reminds me of the German word Sehnsucht which came up on a (it turns out) similar question I had.

Answer 2

ROGER SINASOHN HAS ALREADY GIVEN A COMPREHENSIVE ANSWER, so without going into definitions and usage, let me just summarise the members' comments and state that

(1) to 'miss' something, you don't need to intend to hit it, as in 'aim for it', but you need to know that it's there in the first place. Otherwise you cannot miss it.

OMG I just missed (hitting) that table!

(2) Relativity of perception: You can't miss something that you don't even know of, but somebody else could see that you missed it, (if they knew of it.)

English Student narrowly missed a table that he didnt even know was in his path.

(3) you can miss something only if that something is in a position to be missed in the first place. [principle of relevance: you cannot miss something that was not in your path to begin with.] Example:

it was very dull of Nickling to think he missed that bonus, when he wasn't even eligible for it in the first place.

(4) For completion's sake, and this is a debatable point: it might be said that nothing is 'missed' if nobody knows it is missed.

Many an asteroid has 'not missed' the earth by a matter of inches, only because nobody knew it!

[This is like the notorious debate "does a tree falling in a forest make any sound if there is nobody to hear it?" Your question is rather a semantic puzzle that points to the differences in perception between actor and observer: "can I miss something I didnt even intend to hit?" It could be argued that your own reality lies between what you perceive and what others perceive in relation to you. You might even risk being grandiose and call it the linguistic equivalent of physical relativity!]

Please note that aside from a physical meaning as in

he narrowly missed a table that he didnt even know was in his path

this can also apply in a figurative sense in terms of making or failing to make a relevant reply or argument.

I know I missed some point, but I am not sure which. What were you trying to say? [sarcasm]

The absent-minded professor gave a vague reply that completely missed the student's question.

He thought he was right on target, but I could clearly see he was missing the point (he thought he was making precisely the right statement, but I could see that his argument was entirely beside the point.)