malice

English

Etymology

From Middle English malice, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia (“badness, bad quality, ill-will, spite”), from malus (“bad”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: măl'ĭs, IPA^(key): /ˈmælɪs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

malice (usually uncountable, plural malices)

1. Intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.
   • 1981, Philip K. Dick, Valis, →ISBN, page 67:

     […] not only was there no gratitude (which he could psychologically handle) but downright malice showed itself instead.

2. (law) An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.
   • 2023 April 18, Sam Levine, Kira Lerner, “Fox and Dominion settle for US$787.5m in defamation lawsuit over election lies”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     The question that would have been before the jury was whether Fox committed “actual malice” in airing the claims. That required Dominion to show whether key decision makers were aware the claims were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

Synonyms

• (intention to harm): evilness, ill will, wickedness

Derived terms

• actual malice
• constructive malice
• malice aforethought
• malice in fact
• malice in law
• malice murder
• malice prepense
• malicious
• mute of malice

 

Related terms

• malady

Translations

intention to harm

• Arabic: حِقْد m (ḥiqd)

  Hijazi Arabic: حِقد m (ḥigd)

• Armenian: քեն (hy) (kʻen), նենգ (hy) (neng)
• Azerbaijani: qərəz (az)
• Bulgarian: злонамереност (bg) (zlonamerenost)
• Catalan: malícia (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 惡意／恶意 (zh) (èyì)

• Czech: zlomyslnost f
• Dutch: kwaadaardigheid (nl)
• Esperanto: malico
• Faroese: óndskapur m, óreinskapur m, illskapur m
• Finnish: pahantahtoisuus (fi), ilkeys (fi)
• French: malveillance (fr) f, méchanceté (fr) f, malice (fr) f
• Galician: malicia (gl) f
• German: Boshaftigkeit (de) f, Böse (de) n, Bosheit (de) f, Bösartigkeit f
• Gothic: 𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌸 n (neiþ)
• Greek: εμπάθεια (el) f (empátheia), κακεντρέχεια (el) f (kakentrécheia), κακία (el) f (kakía)
• Hindi: दुर्भाव (hi) (durbhāv), दुर्भावना (hi) (durbhāvnā), विद्वेष (hi) (vidveṣ), कुभाव (hi) (kubhāv), कुभावना (kubhāvnā), कीना (hi) (kīnā), , खुनस (hi) (khunas), कपट (hi) (kapaṭ), खोट (hi) (khoṭ), कुनह (hi) (kunah), बुग़्ज़ (buġz), डाह (hi) (ḍāh), अदावत (hi) (adāvat), अनख (hi) (anakh)
• Hungarian: rosszindulat (hu), rosszakarat (hu), malícia (hu)
• Icelandic: illgirni f, meinfýsni f
• Italian: malizia (it) f, malignità (it), cattiveria (it)
• Japanese: 悪意 (ja) (あくい, akui), 毒気 (ja) (dokuke, dokke)
• Latin: malitia f
• Macedonian: злоба f (zloba), злонамера f (zlonamera), пакост f (pakost)
• Malayalam: ദുഷ്ടത (duṣṭata)
• Maori: mauāhara, kaikino
• Norwegian:

  Nynorsk: argskap m, vondskap m

• Old English: yfelwillendnes f
• Plautdietsch: Groll m
• Polish: złośliwość (pl) f, złoba f, pakość f
• Portuguese: malícia (pt) f
• Romanian: maliție (ro) f, malițiozitate (ro) f
• Russian: злой у́мысел m (zloj úmysel), зло́ба (ru) f (zlóba), злость (ru) f (zlostʹ), зло (ru) n (zlo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: па̏ко̄ст f, зло̀ба f, злона́ме̄рно̄ст f, злу̀рад m, ма̀лӣција f, зло̀ћа f

  Roman: pȁkōst (sh) f, zlòba (sh) f, zlonámērnōst (sh) f, zlùrad (sh) m, màlīcija (sh) f, zlòća f

• Spanish: malicia (es) f
• Swedish: illvilja (sv)
• Thai: เจตนาร้าย, ความมุ่งร้าย (th) (kwaam-mûng-ráai)
• Tocharian B: mantālo
• Turkish: kötü niyet, art niyet (tr)

Further reading

• “malice”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “malice”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Verb

malice (third-person singular simple present malices, present participle malicing, simple past and past participle maliced)

1. To intend to cause harm; to bear malice.
   • 1557, Henry Howard, “Complaint of a lover that defied Love and was by Love after the more tormented”, in Songes and Sonettes:

     Thou blinded God (quod I) forgive me this offence, / Unwittingly I went about, to malice thy pretence.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 477:

     Who on the other ſide did ſeeme ſo farre / From malicing, or grudging his good houre, / That, all he could, he graced him with her, / Ne euer ſhewed ſigne of rancour or of iarre.

   • 1596, Edm[und] Spenser, “An Hymne of Heavenly Love”, in Fovvre Hymnes, London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 32:

     His paines, his pouertie, his ſharpe aſſayes, / Through which he paſt his miſerable dayes, / Offending none, and doing good to all, / Yet being maliſt both of great and ſmall.

   • 1599, Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour, act 5, scene 2:

     I am so far from malicing their states, / That I begin to pity 'em.

   • 1609, Samuel Daniel, The History of the Civil Wars, book 5, verse 48:

     A feeble spirited king that governed, / Who ill could guide the sceptre he did use; / His enemies, that his worth maliced, / Who both the land and him did much abuse: / The peoples love; and his apparent right, May seem sufficient motives to incite.

   • 1995, Fugazi (lyrics and music), “Fell, Destroyed”, in Red Medicine, performed by Guy Picciotto:

     Here's a list of side effects / Practice tested / Covering every maliced angle / For example: / You will sleep forever / You will never sleep again

   • 2005 May 3, “'He was a mess,' woman says of accused”, in The Whitehorse Star‎^[2]:

     Robert Truswell may have been a belligerent and malicing man, a jury heard this morning during the trial of George Kieran Daunt.

   • 2018 May 14, Kimberley Small, quoting Marion Hall, “Dancehall was contentious, says Marion Hall”, in The Jamaica Star‎^[3]:

     I haven't maliced anybody, definitely not. I never used to have friends like that. I had a few who I thought were friends. Even if you have friends, things happen and friendship break up, but you move on. But I still talk to everybody.

Synonyms

• envy (obsolete), grudge (obsolete), spite

Anagrams

• amelic, claime, maleic

Esperanto

Etymology

From malico +‎ -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /maˈlit͡se/
• Hyphenation: ma‧lic‧e
• Rhymes: -it͡se

Adverb

malice

1. maliciously

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French malice, borrowed from Latin malitia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.lis/

Noun

malice f (plural malices)

1. mischief
2. malice

Related terms

• mal

Further reading

• “malice”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin malitia.

Noun

malice oblique singular, f (oblique plural malices, nominative singular malice, nominative plural malices)

1. malice, evilness, evil intentions
2. malicious act

Descendants

• → Middle English: malice
  • English: malice
• French: malice
• → Irish: mailís

References

• malice on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub