English
miseased
Miseased comes from Middle English mysesed ‘suffering, in pain’, and goes back to Old French eise ‘ease’.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400eise1as aise‘ease’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400mesaise1‘suffering’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500myssease2as mysese‘suffering’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mysesed3‘suffering, in pain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1556miseased3
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Middle English myssease
- 2 Wiktionary, Middle English mysesed
- 3 Wiktionary, English miseased
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1556, Marcvs Tullius Ciceroes [i.e., The preface to the reader: “Yet foꝛaſmuch as it muſt of neceſſitie be knowne,…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400eiseWiktionary, Middle English mysseaseas aise‘ease’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400mesaiseWiktionary, Middle English myssease‘suffering’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mysseaseWiktionary, Middle English mysesedas mysese‘suffering’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500mysesedWiktionary, English miseased‘suffering, in pain’
- Englishearliest quotation 1556miseasedWiktionary, English miseased. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1556, Marcvs Tullius Ciceroes [i.e., The preface to the reader: “Yet foꝛaſmuch as it muſt of neceſſitie be knowne,…”
Formed from mis- + eased
Proto-Indo-European *mey- ‘to change’
Proto-Indo-European *mitˢtós ‘mutual, reciprocal’
Proto-Germanic *missa- ‘wrongly, badly, mis-’
Proto-West Germanic *missa- ‘mis-, wrongly’
English mis-
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- ‘to throw’
year, hour, trajectory, catheter, abject, enema, jut, iambic, jetsam, 35 more
through Proto-Indo-European *(H)yéh₁kt ~ *(H)ih₁ként
objective, projection, objection, projectile, objector, dejection, 21 more
through Latin iaciō ‘to throw, hurl, cast, fling’
project, object, jet, injection, jess, inject, conjecture, adjective, ejection, jetty, eject, ejaculation, ejaculate, subjection, interject, jettison, 29 more
through Latin iaceō ‘to lie prostrate, lie down’
through Latin adiacēns ‘adjacent, adjoining, neighbouring’
through Old French eise ‘ease’
Today it means
adj Suffering, in pain; having discomfort or misery; troubled.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “miseased”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Middle English myssease, Middle English mysesed. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Old French eise / miseased