mesel

"leprous" (adj.); "a leper" (n.); both c. 1300, from Old French mesel "wretched, leprous; a wretch," from Latin misellus "wretched, unfortunate," as a noun, "a wretch," in Medieval Latin, "a leper," diminutive of miser "wretched, unfortunate, miserable" (see miser). A Latin diminutive form without diminutive force. Also from Latin misellus are Old Italian misello "sick, leprous," Catalan mesell "sick." The English word is archaic or obsolete since the 1500s, replaced by leper, leprous, but its lexical DNA survives, apparently, as a contamination of measles.