Where does “malunion” come from?
Malunion comes from Old French mal- (badly) combined with English union, which derives from Old French union, from Latin ūniō (a joining together), formed from the root of Latin ūnus (one) with the suffix -iō.
malunion (English): Bad or incorrect union
Ancestry of “malunion”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Union | The 0-10-2 locomotive wheel arrangement |
| 2 | English | onion | A monocotyledonous plant , allied to garlic, used... |
| 3 | Middle English | onyoun | — |
| 4 | Old French | oignon | onion |
| 5 | Latin | ūniō | — |
| 6 | Latin | -iō | — |
| 7 | Proto-West Germanic | -jō | Forms agent nouns from verbs |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 10 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |