malfeasance

English

WOTD – 9 May 2009

Etymology

From Old French malfaisance, derived from malfaire, maufaire (“to do evil”), from Latin malefaciō (“I do evil”), from male (“evilly”) + faciō (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌmælˈfiːzəns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mal‧fea‧sance

Noun

malfeasance (countable and uncountable, plural malfeasances)

1. Wrongdoing.
   • 2024 August 14, Anna Mulrine Grobe, “US weapons help Ukraine advance. Will concerns about corruption put that at risk?”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     For starters, back-burnering malfeasance, usually in the form of graft, risks repeating the kind of disastrous mistakes that the United States made in Afghanistan.

2. (law) Misconduct or wrongdoing, especially by a public official and causing damage.

   Coordinate terms: misfeasance, nonfeasance

   • 2023 December 9, Tripp Mickle, Cade Metz, Mike Isaac, Karen Weise, “Inside OpenAI’s Crisis Over the Future of Artificial Intelligence”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     By then, Mr. Altman had gathered more allies. Mr. Nadella, now confident that Mr. Altman was not guilty of malfeasance, threw Microsoft’s weight behind him.

Synonyms

• (wrongdoing): misconduct, wrongdoing

Related terms

• feasance
• malefactor
• maleficence
• maleficent
• malfeasant

 

Translations

wrongdoing

• Czech: zločin (cs) m, trestný čin (cs) m, přestoupení (cs) n zákona (cs)
• Finnish: pahanteko
• German: schwerwiegendes Fehlverhalten n, schwere Missetat f, Übeltat (de) f, Untat (de) f, (strong) Schandtat (de) f
• Scottish Gaelic: olc m
• Serbo-Croatian: malverzacija (sh) f
• Spanish: maldad (es) f, maleficencia f

misconduct doing damage

• Bulgarian: злоупотреба (bg) f (zloupotreba)
• Czech: sabotáž (cs) f
• Finnish: virkarikos (fi), sabotaasi (fi)
• German: Sabotage (de) f, Sabotageakt (de) m, (böswilliges) Dienstvergehen n (by a public official)
• Portuguese: prevaricação (pt) f
• Scottish Gaelic: sabotàis f
• Serbo-Croatian: zloupotreba (sh) f, zloporaba (sh) m
• Spanish: abuso de autoridad