Where does “malign” come from?
Malign comes from Old French maligne, from Latin malignus meaning "of bad kind," itself from Latin genus meaning "kind" and Proto-Indo-European mel- meaning "bad" combined with Proto-Indo-European ǵenh₁- meaning "to beget or produce."
malign (English): Evil or malignant in disposition, nature, intent...
Definitions
- Evil or malignant in disposition, nature, intent...
Ancestry of “malign”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | maligne | evil, malicious, malign |
| 2 | Old French | maligne | — |
| 3 | Latin | malignus | wicked, malicious; spiteful; malignant, malign |
| 4 | Latin | male | badly; wrongly; cruelly, wickedly |
| 5 | Latin | malus | unpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad;... |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | μηλέα | apple tree |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | μῆλον | apple; any fruit from a tree; a woman's breast |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)meh₁l- | small animal”; small animal |