Where does “mal” come from?
Mal comes from English Malibu, from Latin malus meaning bad, from Proto-Indo-European melH₂- and mel-, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mey-.
mal (English): illness, affliction; A longboard; Malleolus
Definitions
- illness, affliction; A longboard; Malleolus
Ancestry of “mal”, step by step
mal traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French mal
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | mal | trouble, difficulty; pain; evil |
| 2 | Old French | mal | evilly; badly; poorly; evil |
| 3 | Latin | malleus | hammer, mallet; a disease of animals; the... |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | melh₂-no- | — |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | melh₂- | to grind, to crush |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | mel- | soft; tender; weak; to deceive; to rub |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | mey- | to strengthen; to bind; to change, exchange |
via English malleolus
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | malleolus | The bony prominence on each side of the ankle... |
| 2 | Latin | malleolus | small hammer, mallet; fire-dart |
| 3 | Latin | -olus | Alternative form of -ulus; "forming diminutives";... |
| 4 | Latin | -lus | Alternative form of -ulus; diminutive suffix |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -elos | Forms desubstantival and deadjectival diminutive nouns |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -e-lós | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -lós | Forms agent nouns from verbal roots |