"M" Word Origins

malfeasance

Old French

From Old French malfaisance, "doing evil," from male ("badly") and faire ("to do").

malfeasant

Origin

From malfeasance, after such pairs as assistance, assistant, or adapted from French malfaisant.

malfunction

Origin

From mal- ("bad, incorrect") plus "function."

Malhotra

Origin

Borrowed from Punjabi ਮਲ੍ਹੋਤ੍ਰਾ (malhotrā), the same as ਮਰਹੋਤ੍ਰਾ (marhotrā).

Mali

Origin

Named after the medieval Mali Empire, a name traced to a word for "hippopotamus" in a local language.

malia

Origin

The bird's scientific name, Malia grata, gave rise to this common name.

malibu

Origin

Named after the Californian town where this style of surfboard was first developed.

malic

Origin

From French malique, from Latin mālum.

malice

Latin

From Old French malice, from Latin malitia, "badness or ill will," itself from malus, "bad."

malicious

Latin

From Old French malicios, from Latin malitiosus, related to malitia, "malice."

maliciously

Origin

From "malicious" plus the adverb ending "-ly."

maliciousness

Origin

From Middle English maliciousnes; equivalent to malicious + -ness.

malign

Latin

From Old French maligne, from Latin malignus, formed from malus ("bad") and genus ("kind, sort"). Compare "benign," its opposite.

malignant

Late Latin

From Middle French malignant, ultimately from Late Latin malignans — related to "malign."

malignity

Origin

From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign + -ity. * (a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supernatural Collective Nouns”.

malignment

Origin

From malign + -ment.

Malik

Arabic

From Arabic مَالِك (mālik, "owner, master") and مَلِك (malik, "king").

Malika

Arabic

From Arabic مَلِكَة (malika, "queen").

Malin

Origin

The surname is from a Middle English diminutive of the given name Mary.

malinda

Origin

Variant of Melinda, used since the eighteenth century.

malinger

Origin

From French malingrer, from adjective malingre (“delicate, fragile”).

Malka

Hebrew

From Hebrew "malka," meaning "queen."

malkin

Origin

From Malde, an early form of Maude or Matilda + -kin (diminutive ending). Compare grimalkin.

mall

Origin

Probably from The Mall, a famous street in London that began life as an alley for the game of pall-mall.

mallard

Old French

From Old French malart ("male wild duck"), from male ("male") plus a suffix -ard.

malleable

Latin

From Latin malleare ("to hammer"), from malleus ("hammer").

malleate

Origin

First attested in 1884; from malleus + -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

mallee

Origin

Probably borrowed from Wemba-Wemba mali; compare Woiwurrung mali.

mallemaroking

Origin

Generally considered to derive from Dutch, although a specific etymon is unclear. Century and some other old dictionaries derive it from a confusion of two similar Dutch words, namely *mallemerok (“foolish woman”) (from malle (“foolish”) + *marok, from French marotte (“jester's sceptre”)) and *mallemok (“sailor of a whaling vessel”), but the first of those words is not attested, and the second is not attested with the claimed meaning (but see mollymawk). Compare mallemolen.

mallet

Latin

From Old French maillet, a diminutive of mail ("hammer"), from Latin malleus.

Mallika

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit मल्लिका (mallikā).

mallin

Origin

Borrowed from Spanish mallín.

Mallory

Old French

From Old French "malheure," meaning "unlucky."

Malloy

Origin

Variant of Molloy.

malnourished

Origin

From mal- ("bad") plus "nourished."

malnutrition

Origin

From mal- ("bad") plus "nutrition."

malo

Origin

The winemaking sense is simply a shortened form of "malolactic." The clothing sense comes from Hawaiian.

Malone

Irish

From Irish Ó Maol Eoin.

Maloney

Irish

Anglicized form of Irish Ó Maol Dhomhnaigh (“descendant of the devotee of Sunday”), from maol (“devotee”) and Domhnach (“Sunday”).

malosol

Origin

Borrowed from Russian малосоль (malosolʹ), from мало (malo, “light”) + соль (solʹ, “salt”).

malpractice

Origin

From mal- ("bad") plus "practice."

malt

Old English

From Old English mealt, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "soft" or "melting" — related to the word "melt."

Malta

Ancient Greek

Via Italian and Maltese from Arabic, ultimately from Latin Melita and Ancient Greek Melítē.

Maltese

Chinese

From "Malta" plus the suffix "-ese," as in Chinese or Japanese.

Malti

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit "malati," a name for a jasmine flower.

maltreat

Origin

From mal- + treat, after French maltraiter.

maltreater

Origin

From maltreat + -er.

maltreatment

Origin

By surface analysis, maltreat + -ment.