mizzle

This word is actually very funny to me, because it did not remotely go where I expected.

The word this week is mizzle, which is a rather lovely way of describing a light, drizzly rainfall. This comes from the Middle English misellen, of the same meaning, “to rain gently.” The question of borrowing is a little fuzzy, but it likely was adopted from either an Old Dutch or Low German variation, both meaning something more akin to “mist.” At this point, though, any inquiry further back relates to words meaning “urine, or to urinate.” This root exists in a lot of Germanic languages, and they are likely additionally connected to the Latin mēiō, which means, quoted from the 1890 Charlton T Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary entry: “to make water.”