▪ I. † ˈmesel, a. and n. Obs.
Forms: 3–6 mesel, -el(l)e, (4 meosel, mesale, meseile, mezel, myssel(e, -ale, musel, mysale), 4, 7 messel(l, 4–6 mesell, mesyl(l, mysel, (6 messille, mesall, 7 mesill, mezill, meazel, 8 meazle).
[a. OF. mesel leprous, leper:—L. misellus wretched, wretch, dim. of miser wretched.]
A. adj. Leprous.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 14446 And o ten men þat war mesell,..he gaf til ilkan þair hele. 1340 Ayenb. 202 Naaman þet wes mezel. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 4628 Ane horrible seke mesel man. a 1550 Image Ipocr. iv. in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 444 Oh mesell Mendicantes, And mangy Obseruauntes. 1607 R. C[arew] tr. Estienne's World of Wonders 357 Thou measell wretch. |
b. Of fish. (So in OF.)
| a 1400 Chalm. Ayr xx. in Sc. Acts (1814) I. 335 Quhen þai opyn fische þai luke nocht quheder þai be mesale fische or wane. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. p. xliii, Utheris..brekis thaimself be thair fall, and growis mesall. |
c. Of swine: see measle a.
B. n.
1. A leper.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8963 [She] wess þe meseles [v.rr, mysseles, myseles] vet echone. a 1300 Cursor M. 8169 Thoru þe..sal þis mesele, Be sauf and sund of al vnhele. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 128 As Comuyn as þe Cart-wei..To Preostes, to Minstrals to Mesels in hegges. c 1422 Hoccleve Min. Poems xxiv. 469 He eet ther-of..But he ther-thurgh becam a foul mesel. c 1550 Bale K. Johan (Camden) 82 Both crypple, halte, and blynde, Mad men and mesels. |
b. fig. A foul person. (Used in 17th and 18th c. as a term of abuse.)
| c 1422 Hoccleve Jereslaus's Wife 797 Woost thow nat weel thow art a foul mesel? Telle out, let see shryue thee cleene and wel. c 1520 Wyse chylde & Emp. Adrian (W. de W.) (1860) 14 Those that sellen them [sc. benefices] shall be mesellys in the soule as Jesse [i.e. Giezi, Gehazi]. 1605 Lond. Prodigal C 2 b. Chil be abaffeled vp and downe for a messell and a scoundrel. 1606 Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 6 An old mezill will haue a misers tricke. 1746 Exmoor Scolding (E.D.S.) 30 What's me-an by that, ya long-hanjed Meazle? |
2. Leprosy. Also transf., an affliction.
| c 1375 Cursor M. 11827 (Fairf.) Ouer alle he was with mesel playne [earlier texts was he mesel plain]. c 1400 Prymer in Maskell Mon. Rit. (1847) II. 104 That thou fouche suaf to..releeue the meselis [L. miserias] of pore men and thrallis. 1470–85 Malory Arthur xvii. xl. 705 Whanne she had layne a grete whyle she felle vnto a mesel. 1530 Palsgr. 244/2 Mesyll the sickenesse, mesellerie. |
3. attrib., as mesel-cote, mesel house.
| 1402 Will of Neve (Somerset Ho.), Les meselcotes in Kent⁓strete. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 136 To meselle houses of þat same lond, Þre þousand mark vnto þer spense he fond. |
▪ II. mesel, mesalade
see measle, malasade.