Where does “malicious” come from?
Malicious comes from Old French malicios, from Latin malitiosus meaning "evil-natured," formed from Latin malus meaning "bad" with the suffix -osus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European -h₂.
malicious (English): Of, pertaining to, or as a result of malice or...
Definitions
- Of, pertaining to, or as a result of malice or...
Ancestry of “malicious”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Old French | malicios | — |
| 2 | French | malicieux | mischievous; malicious |
| 3 | Latin | malitiosus | malicious, wicked; crafty; spiteful |
| 4 | Latin | malitia | a bad quality; badness, wicked; spite, malice; an... |
| 5 | Latin | -itia | -ness, -ity |
| 6 | Latin | -ia | Used to form a feminine abstract noun, usually... |
| 7 | Latin | -ius | forming adjectives from nouns; nominative neuter... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | -jōs | Forms comparative adjectives |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -yós | Creates adjectives from noun or verb stems |