measly

Meaning

Adjective

• Particularly of pigs or pork: infected with larval tapeworms or trichinae (parasitic roundworms).
• Of a person: infected with measles.
• Small (especially contemptibly small) in amount.

Origin

• measle + -singular of {{m]]|y}}; the word measle is either from Middle Dutch masel ("a blister filled with blood; a pustule, a skin#Noun"), or Middle Low German masel ("a [[red skin blemish"), from Proto-Germanic *masuraz ("a [[knot#Noun"), from *mas-, *mēs-, from Proto-Indo-European *mos- ("a skin [[sore#Noun").