Word Etymology - Misdirection

Over the years one of my favorite places to hangout was the magic shop. It was full of mysteries and secrets, smelled of pipe smoke, and was always filled with older magicians who talked about the glory days of magic. Now one thing that the old magicians used to say was that misdirection was the key to magic, that you could pull off anything with the proper misdirection. They also told me that the best form of misdirection was a beautiful assistant in a seductive outfit. They then proceeded to tell me a story about a magician who was so masterful in his ability to misdirect the audience that he once produced a live donkey on stage using no boxes, trap doors, mirrors, or any other devices or magical apparatus whatsoever. He simply led the donkey on stage while everyone was watching something else on stage (they told me it was his lovely assistant). But having no way to verify this story I don't know if it is actually true.

Misdirection is a relatively new word that is recorded as first being used in 1943 in relation to the art of magic. It is complex word starting with the prefix 'mis' which comes from Germanic origins and meaning "bad" or "wrong." The latter part of the word 'direction' which is comes from the Latin word 'directus' meaning "straight" or "set straight." So the word takes shape as "to wrongfully set straight" or "to set wrongfully straight." In either case the meaning of the English word becomes misdirection becomes clear.

What it means to storytelling: Storytellers are masters of misdirection in their own way. They may not perform illusions but they do set about pointing people in a different direction than what is true (not in all cases). Storytellers especially those who take on the role of a certain character for their performance are masters of leading people away from truth that they are not their character. The masterful storyteller can almost completely convince the audience that he or she is that character. This is misdirection, portraying something that is not and leading your audience towards that end. If we can master our own version of it we can become very powerful storytellers indeed.