English

Alternative forms

• mesell, mysel

Adjective

mesel ‎(comparative more mesel, superlative most mesel)

1. (obsolete) Having leprosy; leprous. [14th-17th c.]

Noun

mesel ‎(plural mesels)

1. (obsolete) A leper. [14th-16th c.]
   • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:

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

2. (obsolete) 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.

3. (obsolete) 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 [...].

Old French

Etymology

Latin misellus.

Noun

mesel 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
   • 1303, 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

• English: measle, mesel