malevolens

Forms

malevolēns (genitive malevolentis); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin male (“badly”) + volēns (“wishing”), literally “wishing ill”; ⟨volēns⟩ is the present participle of volō¹ (“to wish”).^[2][1][3] It is the counterpart of benevolēns (“kind”), and both are found from Plautus on.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus and Ennius have it of people who begrudge others their good fortune.^[4] In the Captivi it is said to be the way of the wretched “to be spiteful and to envy the good”, and a fragment of Ennius' tragedies contrasts the spiteful, who take away a good name, with the well-wishers, who bring glory.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

L&S describes it as very rare and, in the positive degree, ante-classical;^[5][4] Plautus also speaks of someone born with a spiteful nature.^[5][4] Cicero uses only the superlative, in his letters, of people and of jealous disparagement.^[4][5] The usual classical words were malevolus and the noun malevolentia.^[3][2]

Augustine still uses the superlative,^[4] and the word appears in Medieval Latin.^[6][7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of spiteful people who envy the good.^[4][8]
• 204–169 BC – Ennius contrasts the spiteful with the well-wishers in a tragedy.^[4][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the superlative in his letters.^[4][8]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine uses the superlative.^[4][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Ill-disposed, spiteful, malevolent.^[2][5]
2. Envious, disaffected.^[5][1]

Related words

• benevolēns
• malevolus
• malevolentia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC (1957–), Copenhagen / Geneva / Paris: Union Académique Internationale; IRHT
7. ^ Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum / Slovník středověké latiny v českých zemích (1977–), Prague: Academia; electronic version, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de