malpractice

Etymology

It is formed from English mal- + practice.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Etymonline and Klein call it a hybrid,^[7][8] since the prefix goes back through French mal to Latin male (“badly, ill”) or malus (“bad, evil”).^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Incompetence, negligence or unethical conduct by a professional person, especially a lawyer, or by an official: 1652, in W. Durham's Maran-atha.^[2] The 1989 OED and Merriam-Webster begin with the medical sense in 1671,^[10][4] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was chiefly a legal term from the start.^[2][3] From 1671, in Maynwaring's Praxis Medicorum, it was used of a doctor's treatment that departs from accepted practice and harms the patient,^[2] which Etymonline describes as bad treatment of disease, pregnancy or injury through ignorance, carelessness or criminal intent.^[7] From 1739 it also meant an illegal act by which an official used a position of trust for gain at others' expense,^[2] a sense Etymonline and the 1989 OED date to 1758.^[7][10] The general sense of wrongdoing or misconduct followed in 1790.^[2] Etymonline notes that most English words with the prefix mal- are 19th-century coinages.^[7] In modern law it is an instance of negligence or incompetence by a professional, also called professional negligence.^[11]

Timeline

• 1652 – incompetence, negligence or unethical conduct of a professional or an official.^[2]
• 1671 – a doctor's improper treatment that harms the patient.^[2][4][10]
• 1739 – an illegal act by an official who uses a position of trust for gain.^[2] Etymonline and the 1989 OED date this sense to 1758.^[7][10]
• 1790 – wrongdoing or misconduct in general.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Improper, careless or unskilled treatment of a patient by a physician or other medical professional that results in injury or loss: The surgeon was sued for malpractice.^[12][4][13]
2. Improper, illegal or unethical conduct by a professional or by the holder of an official position, especially for personal gain.^[12][13][2]
3. (law) An instance of negligence or incompetence by a professional; professional negligence.^[11][3]
4. Wrongdoing or misconduct in general.^[2][3]

Word family

• malpractitioner

Related words

• practice
• practitioner
• malfeasance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins