Where does “maleficial” come from?
maleficial (English) comes from English malefice, from Latin maleficium, from Latin maleficus, from Latin male, from Latin malus, from Ancient Greek μηλέα, from Ancient Greek μῆλον, from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- — small animal”; small animal.
maleficial (English): injurious, damaging
Ancestry of “maleficial”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | malefice | An evil deed; artifice; enchantment |
| 2 | Latin | maleficium | crime, misdeed, offence, evil deed; injury, hurt,... |
| 3 | Latin | maleficus | wicked, vicious; criminal |
| 4 | Latin | male | badly; wrongly; cruelly, wickedly |
| 5 | Latin | malus | unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad;... |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | μηλέα | — |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | μῆλον | apple; any fruit from a tree; a woman's breast |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)meh₁l- | small animal”; small animal |