malus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈma.ɫʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈmaː.lus]^[1]

Forms

malus (feminine mala, neuter malum, comparative peior, superlative pessimus, adverb male); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *malo-, usually traced to Proto-Indo-European *mol-o- (“bad”).^[2][1] This etymology goes back to Ernout and Meillet; de Vaan finds it semantically fine but uncertain, since it rests on a set of largely isolated words in different branches.^[2] Pokorny instead groups it with words for “small”, such as Old Church Slavonic малъ (malŭ, “small”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌼𐌰𐌻𐍃 (smals), taking the original sense to be “slight, worthless”.^[3][4] Lewis and Short compared Ancient Greek μέλας (mélas, “black”), a link that has since lost support.^[5][1]

Within Italic it is matched by Oscan mallom and mallud (“bad, evil”), which may also be borrowings from Latin.^[2][6] Further comparisons include Old Irish mell (“destruction”), Ancient Greek μέλεος (méleos, “idle; unhappy”), Old Armenian մեղ (meł, “sin”) and Lithuanian mẽlas (“lie”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from the Duenos inscription and Livius Andronicus onwards,^[2] and Köbler places the Duenos inscription between the 7th and the late 3rd century BC.^[4] In Plautus it already has its main sense of something unpleasant or painful, as in the curse abi in malum cruciatum “go and be tortured”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From the start it covered both what is unpleasant or harmful and what is morally wicked, and it served as the general opposite of bonus.^[6][5] Set phrases fixed several of these uses: mala res “trouble”, mala aetas “old age”, dolus malus “deliberate fraud” in law, and mala fides “bad faith”.^[6] Applied to things, it meant poor of its kind or unsuccessful, as of a lost battle, and of birth it meant low.^[6]

In Ecclesiastical Latin the neuter was used as a noun for evil,^[7] and in medieval texts malus as a masculine noun named the Devil.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 7th–3rd century BC – It appears in the Duenos inscription.^[2][4]
• c. 450 BC – The Twelve Tables speak of dolus malus and of a malum carmen, a harmful spell.^[6][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it widely of unpleasant things and of wicked people.^[6][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses malus poeta and malus civis for a bad poet and a bad citizen.^[6][10][4]
• Middle Ages – As a noun it names the Devil.^[8][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unpleasant, distressing, painful.^[6][5]
2. Unpleasant to the senses: ugly, foul-smelling, bad-tasting.^[6]
3. Wicked, evil, mischievous (of people, their character and actions).^[6][5]
4. Harmful, noxious, as of poisonous herbs or spells.^[6]
5. Unkind, hostile, unfavourable; of words, insulting.^[6]
6. (of times, news, weather, battles) Unfavourable, unlucky, unsuccessful.^[6][5]
7. Bad of its kind, poor; of birth, low.^[6]
8. (Medieval Latin, as a noun) The Devil.^[8][9]

Word family

• maledicāx
• maledīcō
• malefaber
• malefaciō
• maleficiō
• maleficus
• malefio
• malesuādus
• maletractatio
• malevolēns
• malevolus

Usage notes

The comparative and superlative come from other stems: peior, pessimus.^[6][1] It is distinct from mālus with a long vowel, which means both “apple tree” and “mast”.^[6][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.