mal

Forms

mal m (plural mals); as an adjective mal, feminine mala, plural mals, males; as an adverb invariable.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan mal.^[2][1] As an adjective it is inherited from Latin malus (“bad”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The noun is inherited from Latin malum (“evil, harm”), the neuter of the adjective used as a noun.^[2][3][4]

The adverb is inherited from Latin male (“badly”).^[2][3][4][1]

The Latin adjective survives as Old Occitan mal, French mal, Spanish malo, Italian malo and Portuguese mau; the noun and the adverb are mal in Spanish too.^[6][7]

De Vaan reconstructs *malo- and, with a question mark, *mol-o- (“bad”); the comparison with mell (“destruction”), μέλεος (méleos, “idle; unhappy”) and mẽlas (“lie”) puts together words isolated in their branches, and he calls it uncertain.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines's first record is a 12th-century document from the upper Cardener valley, which lists the harm done to two farmsteads, bé de mal, “a good deal of damage”.^[2] In 1242 a document from the Conca de Tremp uses the word as a noun and as an adjective: everything was done by one man, sie bé, sie mal, “be it good or bad”.^[2] The Homilies d'Organyà translate the Latin declinet a malo as turning away de mal, from evil.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language the adjective was used of people as of things: Llull writes of a king who was hom mal e de vils custumes, “a wicked man of base habits”.^[2] In most of Catalan dolent has since taken its place after the verb, but Valencian keeps the old use, and in the Principality it survives in phrases such as estar molt mal, of someone gravely ill.^[2] In Roussillon the adjective has moved towards “hard, great”: un mal treball is an endless task.^[2]

Medieval writers used the noun for pain and toil, misfortune, wounds and illness, as well as for moral evil.^[9] The DCVB adds an old sense “tax, levy”.^[3]

Central Catalan replaced the adverb by malament in many uses, a change that did not reach the edges of the western dialects.^[2] At the head of a clause the adverb came to mean “hardly”, and mal que became a conjunction meaning “although”.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1100s – first record, in a document from the upper Cardener valley.^[2][4][5]
• c. 1200 – the Homilies d'Organyà: de mal.^[2]
• 1242 – a document from the Conca de Tremp uses the noun and the adjective.^[2]
• 13th century – Llull uses the adjective of people: hom mal.^[2]
• 1381 – Eiximenis's Regiment de la cosa pública says the idle man always thinks, says and does mal.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary describes the adjective and gives malo as the Spanish equivalent.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary treats the noun and the adverb in separate articles.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. harm, material or moral damage; whatever causes it.^[12][5]
2. Physical suffering, pain; an illness.^[12][5][1]
3. evil, the absence or opposite of good.^[5][3][1]
4. A defect or fault in someone or something.^[5][3]

Adjective

1. bad, not good, used before the noun.^[5][1]
2. Used in curses: mal llamp!^[5]
3. (after a verb; chiefly Valencian) Bad, wicked; of a person, seriously ill.^[2][3]

Adverb

1. badly, not well, especially before a past participle: un vestit mal planxat.^[12][5][1]
2. At the start of a clause: hardly, with difficulty.^[12][5]
3. Used in curses.^[12]

Word family

• maldat
• malejar
• malament
• entremaliat

Related words

• malícia
• maligne
• Latin malus
• Spanish malo

Usage notes

The phrase mal que “although” and mal que bé “in the end, somehow” are standard.^[12] The DCVB has a separate article for a mal it takes to be a pre-Roman word of place names, in Puigmal, Malgrat and, with a feminine form mala, Vilamala and Matamala.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 378
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mal
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 564
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. mal
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5273
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 784
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. mal
10. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. mal
11. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. mal
12. ^ a b c d e f Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. mal