| 1 | Middle French | maligneté | — |
| 2 | Latin | malignitas | spite, malice, malignity; stinginess,... |
| 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 | — |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | μῆλον | apple; any fruit from a tree; a woman's breast |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)meh₁l- | small animal”; small animal |