Etymology

malengine

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Today it means: Evil intent, bad intention; fraud, deceit. Full definition →

Middle English male engyn ← Anglo-Norman mal engin ← Middle French mal engin
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The story

  1. Middle French · derived frommal engin
  2. Anglo-Norman · derived frommal engin
  3. Middle English · inherited frommale engyn
  4. English todaymalengine

From Middle English male engyn, male engyne, from Anglo-Norman mal engin, Middle French mal engin, from mal (“bad, evil”) + engin (“ruse; trickery; deception”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.