to wrongly say or think that someone or something has a particular quality or feature as a result of someone or something else

His bad temper is commonly misattributed to the chronic pain in his leg.

This isn't the only word that he misattributes: from the list of words said to have African origins, only two are likely to derive from African languages.

He contends that much of the slump in revenues has been mis-attributed to downsizing. 他争辩说，大部分收入的下滑都被错误地归因于裁员。

to wrongly say or think that something was created, said, or written by a particular person

The museum misattributed a painting to Vincent Van Gogh.

Of course it matters if a quotation is misattributed. 当然，引语出错是个重要问题。

The quotation is from George Bernard Shaw, although it is often mis-attributed to Kennedy.