malefactum

Forms

malefactum n (genitive malefactī); second declension.^[1][2] Also written separately, male factum,^[1][2] and syncopated malfactum in Plautus.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin malefaciō (“to do wrong, harm”),^[1][2][3] used as a noun in the neuter of its participle.^[2] That verb is a compound of male (“badly”) and faciō (“to do”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Plautus,^[3] whose Trinummus has the syncopated form malfactum.^[2] In a line of Ennius quoted by Cicero it is set against benefacta: benefacta male locata malefacta arbitror, “kindnesses badly bestowed I count as misdeeds”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In classical Latin it means a wrong done, an injury or a misdeed.^[1][2] Plautus' omnia malefacta vostra repperi, “I have found out all your misdeeds”, uses the plural, and Cicero speaks of making a wrong seem greater.^[2] Döderlein calls it a near-synonym and, as it were, a paraphrase of dēlictum and peccātum, whereas maleficium and facinus carry a direct moral charge.^[4] In Ecclesiastical Latin it means an injury or an evil deed,^[5] and in medieval Latin an offence; the feminine malefacta is also found.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, with the syncopated form malfactum.^[2][3]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius sets malefacta against benefacta.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a wrong done.^[2][3]
• Medieval Latin – An offence, also as feminine malefacta.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A misdeed, wrongdoing.^[1][2]
2. An injury, a wrong done to someone.^[1][2][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) An offence.^[6]

Related words

• maleficium
• benefactum
• malefaciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill