maleficus
Latin
Etymology
Derived from male (“badly, wrongly”) + -ficus (suffix denoting making or doing).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /maˈle.fi.kus/, [mäˈɫ̪ɛfɪkʊs̠]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /maˈle.fi.kus/, [mäˈlɛːfikus]
Noun
maleficus m (genitive maleficī); second declension
- doer of wrong, evildoer, criminal (person)
- sorcerer, magician
- "Maleficos, quos vel veneficos possumus appellare, vel dæmonum phantasmatibus servientes." S. Hieronymus, Commentarii
- "Sorcerors, whom we can call either wizards or [men] serving the phantasms of demons." St. Jerome, Commentaries
Declension
Second-declension noun.
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | maleficus | maleficī |
| Genitive | maleficī | maleficōrum |
| Dative | maleficō | maleficīs |
| Accusative | maleficum | maleficōs |
| Ablative | maleficō | maleficīs |
| Vocative | malefice | maleficī |
Adjective
maleficus (feminine malefica, neuter maleficum); first/second-declension adjective
- wicked, vicious
- criminal
Declension
First/second-declension adjective.
| Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nominative | maleficus | malefica | maleficum | maleficī | maleficae | malefica | |
| Genitive | maleficī | maleficae | maleficī | maleficōrum | maleficārum | maleficōrum | |
| Dative | maleficō | maleficō | maleficīs | ||||
| Accusative | maleficum | maleficam | maleficum | maleficōs | maleficās | malefica | |
| Ablative | maleficō | maleficā | maleficō | maleficīs | |||
| Vocative | malefice | malefica | maleficum | maleficī | maleficae | malefica | |
Related terms
- malefaciō
Descendants
- → Catalan: malèfic
- → French: maléfique
- → German: malefiz
- → Italian: malefico
- → Piedmontese: maléfich
- → Portuguese: maléfico
- → Spanish: maléfico
- → Romanian: malefic
- →⇒ English: maleficent
References
- “maleficus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “maleficus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- maleficus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- maleficus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette