# mesel
## 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
* (medicine, obsolete) Synonym of leprous: having leprosy or a similar skin disorder. [14th–17th c.]
** 1357, John Mandeville, The Travels of Sir John Mandeville‎: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.
* (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of wretched.
* (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of repulsive.
* (figurative, obsolete) Synonym of sinful.
* (zoology, obsolete) Synonym of diseased, particularly visibly displaying a diseased exterior.

### Noun

mesel (plural mesels)
* (medicine, obsolete) Synonym of leper.
* (figurative, obsolete) A repulsive person.
* (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, Oxfordshire: 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)
* 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)
* 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)
* 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)
* 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 meselor by lying with a woman who has slept with a leper

#### Descendants

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