Etymology Explorer › French

Where does “malheureux” come from?

malheureux (French) comes from French mal-, from Middle French mal-, from Old French mal-, from Latin male, from Latin malus, from Ancient Greek μηλέα, from Ancient Greek μῆλον, from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- — small animal”; small animal.

malheureux (French): unhappy; miserable

Definitions

  1. unhappy; miserable

Ancestry of “malheureux”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchmal-badly; wrongly; denotes the opposite of the...
2Middle Frenchmal-—
3Old Frenchmal-bad; badly
4Latinmalebadly; wrongly; cruelly, wickedly
5Latinmalusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad;...
6Ancient Greekμηλέα—
7Ancient Greekμῆλονapple; any fruit from a tree; a woman's breast
8Proto-Indo-European(s)meh₁l-small animal”; small animal

Words derived from “malheureux”

  • malere
Every word from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- →