The story
- Late Latin · derived frommisellus“leper”
- Old French · derived frommesel“leprous, leper”
- Norman · derived frommesel“leprous, leper”
- Middle English · inherited frommesel“leprous, leper”
- English todaymesell
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.
Words from the same roots
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.