English
malefactor
Malefactor comes from Late Latin malefactor ‘wrongdoer, evildoer, malefactor, villain’, and goes back to Latin malefaciō ‘to do evil or harm’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmalefaciō‘to do evil or harm’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmalefactor‘wrongdoer, evildoer, malefactor, villain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500malefactour
- Englishearliest quotation 1886malefactor
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEmalefaciō‘to do evil or harm’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEmalefactor‘wrongdoer, evildoer, malefactor, villain’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500malefactour
- Englishearliest quotation 1886malefactor
Earliest quotation: 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Last Night: “‘Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,’ said the lawyer. ‘This suspense,…”
A compound of male ‘evilly’ + factus ‘made or done’
Proto-Indo-European *(s)mel- ‘false, erroneous’
Proto-Indo-European *(s)molos
Proto-Italic *malos
Archaic Latin malos
Latin malus ‘bad, wicked’
Latin male ‘evilly’
Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁k-
Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti
Proto-Italic *θakjō
Proto-Italic *fakjō ‘to make’
Latin faciō ‘do, make’
Latin factus ‘made or done’
Linked words
through Latin malefaciō ‘to do evil or harm’
Today it means
noun A criminal or felon.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin malefaciō / malefactor