MESSAN noun (mes-uh n)

noun

1. Scot. a lap dog; small pet dog.


Quotes

They are good enough lads, Sholto and Laurence both, but they will be for ever gnarring and grappling at each other like messan dogs round a kirk door.
--*S. R. Crockett,*The Black Douglas, 1899


Here, sisters, here is my trusty and well-beloved Dame de Ste. Petronelle, who takes such care of me that she dogs my footsteps like a messan.
--*Charlotte Mary Yonge,*Two Penniless Princesses, 1890



Origin

The English noun messan “small dog, lap dog” comes from Scots Gaelic measan “small dog,” cognate with Irish Gaelic measán, both of which are diminutives of Gaelic mess “favored (one).” Messan entered English in the late 15th century.