"M" Word Origins

Mak

Polish

As a Chinese surname, from Cantonese 麥／麦 (mak6); as a Polish surname, from Mak or short for Makary; as a Ukrainian surname, short for Makar; as a Hungarian surname, short for Makár.

make

Old English

From Old English macian ("to make, build, work"), from a very old Germanic root meaning "to knead" or "to shape."

makeaway

Origin

Blend of make + takeaway.

makebate

Origin

From make + bate (“strife, contention, quarrel”).

makenna

Origin

A variant of McKenna invented in the 1980s.

maker

Middle English

From Middle English maker, from make + -er.

makes sense

English

From the verb make plus sense in its older meaning of 'meaning' or 'intelligibility'.

makeshift

Origin · 1550

A combination of make and shift, first recorded in the 1550s.

makeunder

Origin

Wordplay blend of makeover + under, replacing over with its opposite.

makeup

French

Formed from the phrasal verb "make up." The cosmetics sense borrows the idea from French maquillage, "to make up" a face.

makeweight

Origin

From make + weight.

maki

French

From French maki, borrowed from Malagasy maky.

making

Old English

From Old English macung, the noun form of "make" plus the ending "-ing."

Mako

Origin

Borrowed from Hungarian Makó.

mal

Latin

Borrowed from French mal, "illness," ultimately from Latin malus, "bad."

mala

Sanskrit

The prayer-bead sense is a learned borrowing from Sanskrit māla ("garland"); the culinary sense comes from Mandarin 麻辣 (málà), meaning "numbing and spicy."

malachi

Origin

From Latin Mālāchiās, from Ancient Greek Μαλαχίας (Malakhías), from Hebrew מַלְאָכִי (mal'achi, malʼāḵî, literally “my messenger”), singular form of מַלְאָךְ (mal'akh, “angel; messenger; ambassadors”) with first-person singular personal pronoun as possessor.

Malachy

Hebrew

From Irish Maolmhaodhóg or Maolseachlainn, later influenced by the unrelated Hebrew name Malachi.

maladroit

Origin

Borrowed from French maladroit, from mal- (“bad, badly”) + adroit (“skilful”), equivalent to mal- + adroit.

malady

Latin

From Old French maladie, "sickness," from malade, "sick," which traces back to Latin male habitus, literally "kept in a bad state."

Malaga

Spanish

From Spanish Málaga, ultimately from Phoenician, possibly related to a Semitic word for "salt."

malaise

French

From French malaise, literally "ill ease" — mal- ("bad") plus aise ("ease").

malapert

Origin

From mal- (“not, badly”) + apert (“open, revealed; direct, straightforward; clever, expert”), or from Middle French malappert, Old French mal apert (“ill-skilled”).

malapropos

Origin

From French mal à propos, from mal (“bad, badly”) and à propos (“appropriate, relevant”).

malar

Origin

From modern Latin malaris, from Latin mala (“jaw, cheek-bone”).

malaria

Italian

From Italian mal'aria, "bad air," from an old belief that the disease came from foul air near marshes — long before mosquitoes were identified as the real cause.

malarkey

Greek · 1920

Of uncertain origin, popularized in American newspaper cartoons in the 1920s; possibly linked to an Irish surname or a Greek word for soft or flabby talk.

malati

Origin

Borrowed from Sanskrit मालती (mālatī, “Jasmine”).

Malawi

Origin · 1964

Said to come from a Chichewa word for "flames," describing the glow of sunrise over Lake Malawi; the name was chosen by Hastings Banda in 1964.

Malay

Malay

From the Malay word Melayu, originally the name of an ancient kingdom on Sumatra.

Malaya

Latin

From Malay plus the suffix -ia, a Latinization; compare "Malaysia."

Malayalam

Malay

From the Malayalam words for "mountain" and "region," describing the hilly area where it is spoken.

Malaysia

Malay · 1800

Coined by 19th-century British geographers from "Malay" plus -sia, roughly meaning "land of the Malays"; popularly (though inaccurately) explained as an extension of the earlier name "Malaya."

Malaysian

Malay

From Malaysia plus the adjective ending "-an."

Malcolm

Origin

Anglicized from Gaelic Maol Chaluim, literally "devotee of Saint Columba."

Maldives

Sanskrit

Based on Malé Islands; from Malé, the name of the main island (from Dhivehi މާލެ (māle)) + Prakrit 𑀤𑀻𑀯 (dīva, “island”), from Sanskrit द्वीप (dvīpá).

Maldonado

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Maldonado.

male

Latin

From Old French masle, from Latin masculus, a diminutive of mas, "male." Related to "masculine" and "macho."

malean

Origin

From Malea + -an.

malefaction

Origin

From Latin malefaciō.

malefactor

Origin

From Middle English malefactour, from Late Latin malefactor, from Latin malefaciō, from male (“evilly”) + factus (“made or done”), past participle of facio (“to make or do”).

malefic

Origin

From Latin maleficus.

maleficent

Latin

From Latin male ("badly") plus a form of facere ("to do"), so literally "doing bad."

maleficiate

Origin

From Late Latin maleficiatus, past participle of maleficiare (“to bewitch”).

malefit

Origin

Attested from 1700s. Learned borrowing from Latin malefit, modeled on benefit. Equivalent to French malfaire.

Malek

Arabic

From Arabic "malik," meaning "king."

malevolence

Origin

From Middle French malevolence, from Latin malevolentia (“malevolence”), derived from malevolēns (“malevolent”).

malevolent

Latin

From Latin male ("badly") and volens ("wishing"), from velle ("to wish") — literally "wishing badly" on someone.