malvado

Forms

malvado (feminine malvada, masculine plural malvados, feminine plural malvadas)^[1] Berceo and Alfonso X's General estoria have malvazo, the older adaptation.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan malvat (“wicked”), from Late Latin malifātius (“ill-fated, unfortunate”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin word is recorded in inscriptions and is formed from malus (“bad”) and fātum (“fate”).^[2][6] Its sense moved from misfortune to wickedness, as in miserable, French méchant, Catalan dolent and Italian cattivo.^[4][7]

Corominas explains the Occitan form as an analogical oblique case beside the regular malvatz, which gives French mauvais; the earlier Spanish malvazo and Old Galician-Portuguese malvaz adapt that regular form.^[2] He does not rule out a variant *malifatus, like bonifatus (“happy”) in glosses, which Schuchardt accepted, but finds the Occitan loan more likely, as Meyer-Lübke did.^[2] The DLE and Wiktionary now give the Occitan source, while the 2001 DRAE and Moliner gave only the Latin word.^[5][1][8][9] García de Diego and the Academy's dictionaries from 1884 to 1917 instead derived it from the verb malvar “to corrupt”.^[10][11][12] Corominas considers that rare verb a back-formation from the adjective.^[2]

Italian malvagio is a word of literary tone, probably also from Occitan or from northern Italy, and Portuguese malvado may come from Spanish.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo writes oriella malvaza for a harmful wind, and the DCECH's first record of malvado is the 13th-century Fuero de Sepúlveda.^[2][4] The word stayed rare in Old Spanish: Corominas knows it only in the Escorial glossary of about 1400, in Alonso de Palencia and in Nebrija.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glosses it with Latin “corrupt, vitiated”, and Alonso de Palencia speaks of a man of malvadas fazañas “wicked deeds”.^[2] Cervantes gives it to Don Quixote's noble style: canalla malvada, y peor aconsejada “wicked rabble, and worse advised”.^[13][2] From the Golden Age on it has been a common word, used above all as a noun.^[2]

Covarrubias defines it as someone who is extremely bad, and the Diccionario de Autoridades as insolent, vicious and ill-inclined.^[14][15] Today it describes a perverse person and, as a noun, the villain of a film, play or comic.^[5][16]

Timeline

• 13th century – Berceo has the form malvazo.^[2]
• 13th century – malvado in the Fuero de Sepúlveda.^[2][4]
• 1280 – maluazo in Alfonso X's General estoria.^[3]
• 1573 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “extremely bad”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from the verb malvar.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person: wicked, perverse, inclined to evil; also as a noun: El malvado del pueblo envenenó el pozo.^[5][1]
2. Showing or implying moral wickedness: una sonrisa malvada.^[16]

Noun

1. The villain of a novel, film or play.^[16]

Related words

• malo
• hado
• malvar
• French mauvais
• Old Occitan malvatz

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 788
3. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. malvado
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. malvado
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. malvado
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 438
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. malvado
8. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. malvado
9. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. malvado
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. malefacere
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 667
12. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1072
13. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 703
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1, 1105
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 468
16. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. malvado
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. malvado