Mescreant

Mescreant is an archaic or historical spelling of the English word miscreant. It is found in older texts and is generally considered obsolete in contemporary English. In modern usage, the word miscreant is the standard form, while mescreant appears as a variant mainly in early print or manuscript sources.

Etymology and historical context. The term derives from Old French forms such as mescreant, rooted in a combination of elements meaning “wrong” or “evil” and “believing,” related to croire, to believe. In English, miscreant and its variants emerged in the medieval and Early Modern periods to describe a person who behaves badly, a villain, or a wrongdoer. The spelling mescreant reflects historical orthographic practices before standardized spelling took hold.

Usage and nuance. In historical texts, mescreant may be encountered alongside miscreant, often in the same or similar senses: a person deserving of censure for wrongdoing, or, in religiously inflected contexts, a nonbeliever or heretic. In modern English, mescreant is rarely used and is typically restricted to discussions of philology, etymology, or period-accurate writing where archaism is intentional.

Modern status. Today, miscreant is the prevailing form, and mescreant is regarded as an obsolete variant. When encountered, it usually signals antiquity, a philological note, or a deliberate attempt to evoke an older linguistic register.