misalliance
English edit
Etymology edit
From mis- + alliance, partly after French mésalliance.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
misalliance (plural misalliances)
- An unsuitable alliance, especially an unsuitable marriage. [from 18th c.]
- 1932, Duff Cooper, Talleyrand, Folio Society, published 2010, page 97:
- A misalliance is more shocking to a Frenchman than to an Englishman, and Talleyrand was very French in his appreciation of the importance of family, and in his insistence upon outward correctness of behaviour.