mésalliance

American  

[mey-zuh-lahy-uhns, mey-zal-ee-uhns, mey-zal-yahns] / ˌmeɪ zəˈlaɪ əns, meɪˈzæl i əns, meɪ zalˈyɑ̃s /

noun

plural

mésalliances

1. a marriage with someone who is considered socially inferior; misalliance.

---

mésalliance British  

/ mezaljɑ̃s, mɛˈzælɪəns /

noun

1. marriage with a person of lower social status

---

Etymology

Origin of mésalliance

From French, dating back to 1775–85; mis- ¹, alliance

Example Sentences

One kind of clue in analysis is a mésalliance — a mismatch.

From New York Times

The mésalliance here, I’m suspecting, is the mismatch between the intensity of feeling and the referenced event that provoked the feeling.

From New York Times

In the second, having argued that modern young women possessed the independence of mind to seek out entertainments on their own, she wrote, “Modern girls are conscious of the importance of their own identity, and they marry whom they choose, satisfied to satisfy themselves. They are not so keenly aware, as were their parents, of the vast difference between a brilliant match and a mésalliance.”

From The New Yorker

Seems a puzzling mésalliance on the part of Mssrs.

From Forbes

Soon after his arrival he fell in love with Annia Regilla, a beautiful and wealthy heiress, and in spite of the violent opposition of her brother, Annius Attilius Braduas, who, belonging to the Julian family, and claiming an imaginary descent from Venus and Anchises, looked upon the marriage as a mesalliance, he succeeded in obtaining her hand.

From Project Gutenberg