ETYMOLOGY
from French medisance, from mesdisant present participle of mesdire (to speak evil), from mes- (mis-) + dire (to say)
EXAMPLE
“… Let every one then make this good use of the respect and difference which is given to their persons or conditions; the taking upon them to discredit this so pernitious fashion of receiving (as justifyable Presents from their observers) the desamation of their brother; for when this humour of Medisance springeth in the head of the company, it runnes fluently into the lesse noble parts; but when it riseth first but in the inferior and dependent persons, it requireth a force of wit and ingeniosity to raise and diffuse it upward, which capacity is not very familiar: …”
From: Miscellanea Spiritualia: or, Devout Essaies
By Walter Montagu, 1648
Lexicophilia 