Where does “malignant” come from?

malignant (Middle French) comes from Late Latin malignans, from Latin maligno, from Latin malignus, from Latin male, from Latin malus, from Ancient Greek μηλέα, from Ancient Greek μῆλον, from Proto-Indo-European (s)meh₁l- — small animal”; small animal.

Ancestry of “malignant”, step by step

Step	Language	Word	Meaning
1	Late Latin	malignans	maligning
2	Latin	maligno	I malign; I act viciously; dative masculine...
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

Words derived from “malignant”

malignant
malignancy
premalignant
malignantly
nonmalignant
premalignancy
unmalignant
malignin
nonmalignancy
pseudomalignancy
non-malignant
promalignant

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