malformation

Etymology

It is formed from English mal- + formation.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The prefix mal- comes from French mal (“badly”), from Latin male (“badly”) or malus (“bad”),^[3][7] and formation is from Old French formacion or directly from Latin fōrmātiō (“a forming, shaping”).^[3] The OED compares French malformation, which is recorded only from the mid-19th century, later than the English word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Abnormal or faulty structure or development, especially of a part of the body: 1769, in a letter of E. Darwin.^[2][8] Etymonline gives an earlier date, 1731, for "faulty formation, irregular or anomalous structure",^[3] while Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1800,^[4] Dictionary.com to 1790–1800^[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 19th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was used both for the condition of being badly formed and for a single instance of it, and the OED also records figurative use.^[2] In medicine it came to mean especially a deformity present at birth, a congenital abnormality.^[2][5][9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives an example of a malformation of character, and quotes H. A. Overstreet on the "queer malformations in our physical and psychological makeup".^[4] The related adjective malformed followed, recorded from 1801 in Etymonline;^[3] the OED's first record is from 1817.^[2]

Timeline

• 1769 – abnormal or defective structure or development; an instance of this.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The condition of being badly or abnormally formed: The scan showed no sign of malformation.^[9][4][2]
2. A deformity in the shape or structure of a part of the body, especially a congenital one: a rare malformation of the heart.^[9][2][5]
3. Anything that is badly formed, including non-physical things such as character.^[4][2]

Related words

• malformed
• formation
• form

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins