mesel

See also: mesél

English

Alternative forms

• mesyl, mesell, mesall, messel, messell, mesele, mesale, missel, mesell, misell, missell, missale, missaell, messelle, messille, mysal, mysel, mysale, mysell, myssaell, myssale, myssele, myssell, mesill, mysill, mezell, mezill, measell, meazle, meazel

Etymology

From Middle English mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Norman mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Old French mesel (“leprous, leper”), from Late Latin misellus (“leper”), from miser (“wretched, wretch”) + -ellus (“-elle”). Doublet of measles.

Adjective

mesel

1. (medicine, obsolete) Synonym of leprous: having leprosy or a similar skin disorder. [14th–17th c.]
   • 1357, John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville‎^[1]:

     Also in that flome Jordan Naaman of Syria bathed him, that was full rich, but he was mesell; and there anon he took his health.

2. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of wretched.
3. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of repulsive.
4. (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of sinful.
5. (zoology, obsolete) Synonym of diseased, particularly visibly displaying a diseased exterior.

Noun

mesel (plural mesels)

1. (medicine, obsolete) Synonym of leper.
2. (figurative, obsolete) A repulsive person.
3. (medicine, obsolete) Synonym of leprosy: Hansen's disease and similar skin disorders.

Derived terms

• mesel-cote, meseled, mesel house, meseling, mesel man, meselness, meselry, mesely

References

• “† mesel, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Anagrams

• LEEMs, Elems, Emels, lemes, meles

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French mesel, from Late Latin misellus (“leper”), from Latin miser (“wretched”).

Noun

mesel (plural mesels)

1. A leper. [14th–16th c.]
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:

     For she is […] As comune as a cartwey · to eche a knaue þat walketh / To monkes to mynstralles · to meseles in hegges.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. A wretched or revolting person. [14th–16th c.]
   • 1395, John Wycliffe, Bible, Isaiah LIII:

     Verily he suffride oure sikenesses, and he bar oure sorewis; and we arettiden him as a mysel and smytun of God and maad low.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. Leprosy. [15th–16th c.]
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVII:

     So hit befelle many yerys agone there happened on her a malodye, and whan she had lyene a grete whyle she felle unto a mesell, and no leche cowde remedye her [...].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: measle, measles, mesel

References

• “mēsel, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old French

Etymology

Inherited from Latin misellus (“wretched”).

Noun

mesel oblique singular, m (oblique plural meseaus or meseax or mesiaus or mesiax or mesels, nominative singular meseaus or meseax or mesiaus or mesiax or mesels, nominative plural mesel)

1. leper
   • 1377, Bernard de Gordon, Fleur de lis de medecine (a.k.a. lilium medicine), page 172 of this essay:

     ou par gesir avec femme qui a dormi avec ung mesel

     or by lying with a woman who has slept with a leper

Descendants

• → Middle English: mesel
  • English: measle, measles, mesel