mysfeling

Middle English

Etymology

Possibly a participle of an unattested verb *mysfelen, from mys- +‎ felen ("to think wrongly; to feel poorly"). By surface analysis, mys- +‎ feling.

Adjective

mysfeling

  1. Foolish, senseless.

Noun

mysfeling

  1. A foolish person.
  2. (medicine, hapax legomenon) Numbness.
    • a1475, Platearis Practica brevis [Cambridge University Library MS Dd.10.44] fol. 18v, quoted in 2016, Juhani Norri, Dictionary of Medical VOcabulary in English, 1375-1550: Body Parts, Sickness, Instruments, and Medical Preperations; under "misfeeling"
      Ȝyf be in þe sinewis, þan þe stoppynge & mysfyllynge [L: stupor et insensibilitas (D5va)] is in þe ouereste partes, as in þe face.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

Outside the medical sense, this word is apparently only found in John Wycliffe's translation of Ecclesiasticus, and did not survive into Modern English.