maledictio

Forms

maledictiō f (genitive maledictiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin maledīcō (“to speak ill of”) + -tiō.^[2][1] The verb is made from male (“badly”) and dīcō² (“to say”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero is its first author: he sets it against an accusation, which needs a charge, whereas maledictiō nihil habet prōpositī praeter contumēliam “abuse has no aim but insult”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it is rare, meaning abuse or slander.^[2][5] Christian Latin made it the usual word for a curse, the act of cursing, as in the Vulgate's benedictiōnem et maledictiōnem “the blessing and the curse” set before Israel.^[5][4] Pelagius notes that there is more than one kind, since whatever is said with an evil wish is said ill.^[4]

Medieval Latin used it of curses in charters and of the curse of God,^[7][8] and of the curses laid on Cain and on Ham in Genesis.^[7] It passed into Old French as ⟨maleiçon⟩, the source of English malison in the mid-13th century, and English malediction was borrowed in the mid-15th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero contrasts it with accusation.^[4][5][6]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of cursing.^[4][6]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of insults.^[4][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate sets the blessing and the curse before Israel.^[5][6]
• 933 – An English charter threatens the anathema of eternal malediction.^[7]
• mid-13th century – English malison appears, from Old French.^[3]
• mid-15th century – English borrows malediction.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. abuse, slander, evil-speaking.^[2][5]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) A curse; the act of cursing.^[5][9][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) condemnation.^[1]

Related words

• maledictum
• benedictiō
• English malediction
• English malison

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson