malice

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The desire to harm others or to see them suffer.

   There was real malice in the way he spoke to her.

2. 2
   noun

   The deliberate intention to do harm, especially as a factor in a crime.

   The court had to decide whether the act was committed with malice.

Simplified etymology

Malice entered English in the Middle English period and ultimately derives from Latin malus ‘bad’. Since the 15th century it has also been a legal term, especially in malice aforethought, referring to a prior intention to kill or harm.

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

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary