Does anyone know what the word "mesallied" or "mescaligned" means

[Phillybee]

I've been listening to a bunch of The Decemberists lately and the word "mesallied" or "mescalined " appears in the song "Leslie Ann Levine."

This band's subject material appears to be (primarily) the fictitious personal events of people who lived in the age of discovery, or 1600-1900; a lot of their songs concern pirates and sailing and such.

It could be that the word is misunderstood or misreported at the lyric sites I looked at. My guess is that it is an old form of the word "misaligned" but I dont have access to the OED. Does anyone here have access to the OED?

Band site (This song is on "Castaways and Cutouts") :

http://www.decemberists.com/

Full lyrics (courtesy of letssingit.com):

my name is leslie ann levine
my mother birthed me down a dry revine
my mother birthed me far too soon
born at nine and dead at noon

fifteen years gone now
i still wander this parapet
and shake my rattle bone
fifteen years gone now
i still cling to the petticoats
of the girl who died with me

on the roofs above the streets
the only love i've knowns a chimney sweep
lost and lodged inside a flue
back in 1842

fifteen years gone now
i still wail from these catacombs
and curse my mother's name
fifteen years gone now
still a wastrel mescalined
has brought this fate on me

my name is leslie ann levine
i've got no one left to mourn for me
my body lies inside its grave
in a ditch not far away

fifteen years gone now
i still wander this parapet
and shake my rattle bone
fifteen years gone now
i still cling to the petticoats
of the girl who died with me

[dann]

Maybe a verb constructed from the noun mésalliance (or misalliance)?

[Underemployed]

I'm afraid they are probably referring to someone who has gone on a trip. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescaline)

[Kiless]

It's a reference to Mescaline! :)

[Kiless]

Oh and OED? Right here - www.oed.com

(although I usually lunge for www.dictionary.com by preference if I want a quick look-up)

[Zep]

Are you sure it's not supposed to be spelled "misaligned"? Or perhaps "maligned" (as in "wastrel most maligned")? This could be a mondegreen...

[Kiless]

Originally posted by Zep
Are you sure it's not supposed to be spelled "misaligned"? Or perhaps "maligned" (as in "wastrel most maligned")? This could be a mondegreen...

I think the implication (as previously implied by Underemployed) is that :

" Still a wastrel, mescalined,
Has brought this fate on me. "

is that they are under the influence of mescalin as a method of dealing with their sorry state.

[Phillybee]

Thanks for the replies. The word is sung with a soft 's' instead of the hard 'sk' sound in mescaline.

[Nucular]

Also I'd have thought mescaline would be a bit of an anachronism for that song - though peyote has been used by some Native American cultures for ages, mescaline itself (an extract of peyote) was only identified and named in 1897, according to the Wikipedia article someone linked to.

Never heard of The Decemberists, they sound intriguing though.

[Zep]

Originally posted by Phillybee
Thanks for the replies. The word is sung with a soft 's' instead of the hard 'sk' sound in mescaline. Does the end of the word, when sung, rhyme with "pine", or with "queen"?

[Phillybee]

It rhymes with 'pine.' I think it is either misallied or misaligned.

[Nucular]

Originally posted by Phillybee
It rhymes with 'pine.' I think it is either misallied or misaligned. Okay, I'm off sick today and feeling crappy, so I've decided to distract myself from the horror of upset stomachs by trying to find out what that damned word is.

Most of the lyrics sites on the net suggest "messalied", though none offer an explanation of why, and at least one (http://www.leoslyrics.com/listcomments.php?lyricId=126964) of them spawned a very similar discussion with similar conclusion, i.e. that it's "misallied".

I listened to the song myself though - it doesn't sound much like misallied or misaligned to me. It sounds, phonetically, more like like "may-ser-line", that first syllable quite clearly pronounced.

It's discussed elsewhere a couple of times on the net - I've found two references, one here (http://gieg.net/ipw-web/b2/index.php?cat=2) and another here (http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=43), to the word "mesallied" as meaning "lazy woman", though neither person gives a reference.

There is a similar word, "messaline" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=messaline), which is apparentlyA lightweight, soft, shiny silk cloth with a twilled or satin weave.This could describe the mother's dress that the ghost clings to, which would make her a "wastrel, messalined", which would kind of say that she was a well-dressed waster, or something.

There is also a (slightly archaic? French?) female name "Maceline", so it could be saying that the mother's name was Maceline.

Another contender would be "maselyn" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=maselyn), an archaic word meaning "mixture of materials", similar etymylogically to miscellany, though Dictionary.com picks out "materials resembling brass" as its primary meaning. I'm not sure how this could be made to fit the context... a wastrel "resembling brass", like "brassy"?

So... I don't know.

It might be impossible to say, as none of them really quite fit, and the author seems to have picked it mostly because he thought it sounded good.

If we could find out why "mesallied" meant "lazy woman" I'd probably go with that - failing that, who can say?



Still feeling rubbish, but that did distract me for a while...

[Ed]

I have an OED and the word "messalian" means one who prays.

The first word in the OP could refer to the major parts of a helmet.

[c4ts]

I'll bet "mescaligned" means "high on mescaline..."

Or maybe it was "misaligned" and the singer got it wrong.

Anyway, crystalized mescaline is still a street drug as far as I know. It's not very anachronistic.

[Leif Roar]

Originally posted by Nucular
There is a similar word, "messaline" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=messaline), which is apparentlyThis could describe the mother's dress that the ghost clings to, which would make her a "wastrel, messalined", which would kind of say that she was a well-dressed waster, or something.

Or it could describe the shroud the baby's corpse was wrapped in.

[JamesM]

I always assumed it was "me-sallied", i.e. to go forth.

The best song, by a long way, from a very over-rated bunch, if you ask me (which you haven't).

[paralian]

I looked it up in the dictionary on my laptop, and this makes perfect sense in this context--her mother probably married someone of a different social position.

mésalliance |ˌmāzəˈlīəns; ˌmāˌzalˈyä n s|
noun
a marriage with a person thought to be unsuitable or of a lower social position.
ORIGIN French, from més- ‘wrong, misdirected’ + alliance (see alliance ).

[zeusbheld]

I looked it up in the dictionary on my laptop, and this makes perfect sense in this context--her mother probably married someone of a different social position.

this seems the most probable, seen in context.

also, bear in mind that lyrics posted on the 'net are generally transcribed by fans. lastly, at times i've heard what might have been errors in usage in Decemberists' lyrics.

that said, giving all the benefit of the doubt, the above makes the most sense to me in context of the lyrics.

[fuelair]

unfortunately, the search for the term on the internet is overwhelmed by so many people doing it. None of the sites coming up has it - they are just locations also hunting it. That is annoying - but it is an old term which basically means you met and 'got with" someone who was not good for you. It's current equivalent is, indeed, misalliance (aka mis-alliance). but you will have to go without verification until I can get to a written source.

[fuelair]

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?dict=F&lang=F&key=13944


specifically, to marry beneath oneself. French, and I am 98.5% certain I have seen it used in the Cadfael mysteries series at least twice - as well as others for that very general historical period.

[Tiktaalik]

According to the insert in my copy of Castaways and Cutouts, the word is spelled "mesallied". I got turned on to the Decemberists last year & they are my current favorite band...

And I have no idea what it means.

[fuelair]

According to the insert in my copy of Castaways and Cutouts, the word is spelled "mesallied". I got turned on to the Decemberists last year & they are my current favorite band...

And I have no idea what it means.
Look just above your post for general, specific and source!!

[zeusbheld]

<<applauds>>

well done, people! well DONE! this was great fun and not at all what i expected to run into on this site. incidentally my current favorite Decemberists song is "Bagman's Gambit," although it's a bit of a tossup with "Bandit Queen."

[paralian]

this seems the most probable, seen in context.

also, bear in mind that lyrics posted on the 'net are generally transcribed by fans. lastly, at times i've heard what might have been errors in usage in Decemberists' lyrics.

that said, giving all the benefit of the doubt, the above makes the most sense to me in context of the lyrics.

I did my english essay on a few songs by the decemberists, and on the website where I looked for the Crane Wife, the lyrics were transcribed wrong in a few places. So I just photocopied the thing from the CD