Etymologically
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malignitas

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [maˈlɪŋ.nɪ.tas][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [maˈliɲ.ɲi.tas][1]

Forms

malignitās f (genitive malignitātis); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin malignus (“mean, spiteful”) + -tās.[2][3][1] De Vaan lists malignus among the derivatives of malus (“bad”), and dates both the adjective and this noun from Plautus.[4] He follows Ernout and Meillet in tracing malus to Proto-Italic *malo- and perhaps Proto-Indo-European *mol-o- (“bad”), comparing Oscan mallom (“bad”) and Irish mell (“destruction”), but calls the etymology uncertain, since the comparable words are isolated in their branches.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first, in the Captivi, of stinginess: “so has he burdened all mortals with meanness towards me”.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is stinginess or meanness, the grudging of what one has.[2][1] From there it passed to ill will, spite and malice, the sense of Valerius Maximus, Seneca and Tacitus, who writes that a show of freedom clings to malice.[2][6] Seneca the Younger also uses it of an inherent badness of nature that a man overcomes.[2] Lewis & Short note that Cicero and Caesar avoid it.[6] Church Latin uses it broadly for evil, malice and wickedness.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of meanness in the Captivi.[2][5]
  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca the Younger of inborn badness of character.[2][5]
  • 98–115 AD – Tacitus of malice that passes itself off as frankness.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Stinginess, niggardliness, meanness.[2][1]
  2. Ill will, spite, malice, envy.[2][6][1]
  3. Inherent badness, malignancy.[2]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Evil, wickedness, vice.[7]

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes it from malitia, baseness that shows itself in lying and deceit: malignitas grudges good to another and wants it only for oneself, while malevolentia wishes evil to another.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper