malfatto

Forms

malfatto (feminine malfatta, masculine plural malfatti, feminine plural malfatte)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian malfare (“to do wrong”): its past participle, used as an adjective and as a noun.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The verb continues Latin malefaciō (“to do wrong”), from male (“badly”) and faciō (“to do”).^[7][1] Devoto–Oli and Nocentini analyse the word as mal- and fatto, and Treccani sees in it the adverb “badly” written together with the participle.^[8][9][10]

For the noun “misdeed”, DEI, Tommaseo and the GDLI compare Latin malefactum (“misdeed”), and DEI calls the word learned.^[11][6][12] Treccani explains the noun as either an adjective malo with the participle, or the noun of the same form with it.^[10] Old French malfait (13th century) and Spanish malhecho are parallel words.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun appears first, as malfato “a blameworthy deed”, in the 13th-century Proverbia super natura feminarum.^[13] The adjective is first recorded before 1292 in Bono Giamboni in the moral sense “blameworthy”: nothing makes a man fearful but the awareness of cose malfatte, “things done wrong”.^[13][12]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio, in 1348–1353, uses the adjective for a body that is badly formed: a woman grassa e grossa e piccola e malfatta, “fat, stout, short and misshapen”.^[13][6] The noun in the form malfatto is recorded before 1347 in Bartolomeo da San Concordio.^[13] In the 19th century Tommaseo marked the noun “misdeed” as obsolete and weaker than misfatto.^[6]

Today the adjective is also used of things and work done badly.^[7][8] In cooking, malfatti are gnocchi of flour with spinach, eggs, parsley and breadcrumbs: GRADIT places them in Emilia, Sabatini–Coletti and Zingarelli in the Valtellina, and the GDLI compares Milanese malfàtt.^{[7][3][2][12]}

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses malfatto “blameworthy”.^[13]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses the noun malfatto “misdeed”.^[13]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a misshapen body.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Badly made, poorly done: una mensola malfatta.^[7][8][4]
2. Of a person or part of the body: ill-proportioned, misshapen.^[7][8][3]
3. (figurative) Blameworthy, morally wrong.^[8][2][4]

Noun

1. A misdeed, a wrong; also a mistake.^[7][8][2]
2. (cooking, chiefly plural) malfatti: gnocchi of flour with spinach, eggs and breadcrumbs.^[7][3][2][1]

Related words

• malfattore
• malfare
• malefatta
• misfatto

Usage notes

Treccani also allows the spelling mal fatto, and the two words are kept apart when the participle is used as a predicate.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
6. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2330
12. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 537
13. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli