When Things Aren't Exactly Good.

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The Latin morpheme MAL, which is usually a prefix in English words, means bad, ill, or wrong. MAL occurs regularly in fiction and fantasy, providing the names of villains like Malevole (in John Webster’s 1603 play The Malcontent), Maleficent (the evil queen in Disney’s 1959 animated version of Sleeping Beauty and the title character of a later, 2014 film), and Draco Malfoy (in the Harry Potter series).

MONDAY - Malady (Noun), Malaria (Noun), Malignant (Adjective), Malingerer (Noun)

A malady is an ailment or disease. For example, the mosquito-borne disease malaria got its name from medieval Italians who attributed the illness to the effects of mala aria, bad air. When a tumor is found to be cancerous, it is designated malignant to distinguish it from a benign, or non-cancerous, tumor.

Sometimes people pretend to be afflicted by a malady in order to get out of unpleasant obligations. The word for such clever strategists is malingerer. Are there any kids who have never engaged in a little malingering on school days?

TUESDAY - Malfunction (Noun) Malnutrition (Noun) Malabsorption (Noun) Dismal (Adjective)

Some maladies arise, not from germs or viruses but from some kind of malfunction in the body: sometimes one or more body systems aren’t working properly. For example, a person may suffer from malnutrition, a deprivation of essential nutrients that is usually related to food scarcity. But in some cases, this can happen even when food is abundant, because of malabsorption. A malfunctioning digestive system may not be able to absorb nutrients from the food a person consumes, leaving the person malnourished. Someone who doesn’t get enough nutrients is likely to feel dismal, a word that comes from the Latin dies mali, meaning bad or unlucky day.

WEDNESDAY - Malefactor (Noun), Malice (noun), Malicious (adjective), Malevolent, (adjective) Malevolence (Noun)

Evil, wicked, spiteful: these are the characteristics of a malefactor. In Latin, facere means “to do,” so a malefactor is an evil-doer. Such villains act with malice, a desire to cause harm. Malicious gossip, for example, is gossip intended to destroy a person’s reputation or peace of mind. People who spread malicious gossip are malevolent: in Latin, voluntas means “will,” so malevolence means “ill will.” 

THURSDAY - Malfunction (Noun), Malfeasance (Noun), Malware (Noun), Malediction (Noun)

Any kind of system can malfunction: our bodies, our political systems, and our various machines. When a computer system goes on the fritz, the problem may arise from some programmer’s unintended keystroke, but it could also be the result of malfeasance, wrong-doing. Unfortunately, some inventive malefactors create malware, software maliciously intended to cause problems, sometimes trivial and sometimes disastrous. If that happens to your computer, you might be tempted to pronounce a malediction, or curse, on the hacker responsible.

FRIDAY - Malapert (Adjective), Maladroit (Adjective), Malapropism (Noun)

A person who behaves in an impertinent manner is malapert. This is not a word we see much today but it’s a fun one to know. In Shakespeare’s Richard III, the elderly Queen Margaret rebukes the saucy young Marquis of Dorset, saying “Peace, Master Marquis, you are malapert”!

A person who is skillful is “adroit,” but a person who tends to bungle things is maladroit. A barista who spills your coffee is maladroit, as is an ambassador who botches a delicate diplomatic mission by unintentionally insulting a negotiating partner.

When someone maladroitly substitutes one word for another, similar-sounding word, the result is often hilarious. This is called a malapropism (from mal plus “a propos,”appropriate”). The eighteenth-century playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan got a lot of comic mileage out of a character named Mrs. Malaprop in his comedy, The Rivals. Mrs. Malaprop is fond of verbal flourishes but is not exactly in control of her semantics. So, for example, she pronounces one character to be “the very pineapple of politeness” (she means “pinnacle”). The former governor of Texas, Rick Perry, described the states of the U.S. as “lavatories of innovation and democracy.” You can probably guess what he meant to say!