Etymologically
Log in

malefactum

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 12:55. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]

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