Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “maladapted” come from?

maladapted (English) comes from English mal-, from Old French mal-, from Latin male, from Latin malus, from Ancient Greek μηλέα, from Ancient Greek μῆλον, from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- — small animal”; small animal.

maladapted (English): Of any evolving or learning entity, not well...

Definitions

  1. Of any evolving or learning entity, not well...

Ancestry of “maladapted”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishmal-bad, badly as in maladjusted, malcontent -...
2Old Frenchmal-bad; badly
3Latinmalebadly; wrongly; cruelly, wickedly
4Latinmalusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad;...
5Ancient Greekμηλέα—
6Ancient Greekμῆλονapple; any fruit from a tree; a woman's breast
7Proto-Indo-European(s)meh₁l-small animal”; small animal
Every word from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- →