maleficium

Forms

maleficium n (genitive maleficiī or maleficī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin maleficus (“wicked, harmful”) + -ium.^[2][1] The adjective is male (“badly”), from malus (“bad”), with faciō (“to do”); de Vaan finds the further origin of ⟨malus⟩ uncertain.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Rudens: nē cōnsciī sint ipsī maleficī suī, “so that they may not be privy to their own misdeed”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is a misdeed, crime or offence, as in Cicero's guilty conscience over crimes, and also a wrong or injury done to someone: Terence's people would not even return a kindness for an injury.^[2][5] In Apuleius maleficium magicum or maleficium alone is black magic, sorcery: he is accused of magic misdeeds.^[2][1] In Pliny the Elder the plural is noxious creatures, vermin.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a misdeed.^[2][3]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of an injury.^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of crimes.^[5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder of vermin.^[2][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius of sorcery.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A misdeed, crime, offence.^[2][1]
2. An injury, wrong, hurt.^[2][1]
3. Black magic, sorcery.^[2][1]
4. (plural) Noxious creatures, vermin.^[2]

Word family

• maleficiārius

Related words

• maleficus
• beneficium
• malus
• faciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press