The story
- Latin · derived frommalevolentem
- Old French · derived frommalivolent
- Middle English · inherited from*malevolent
- English todaymalevolent
From Middle English *malevolent (suggested by Middle English malevolence), from Old French malivolent and Latin malevolentem, from male (“badly, wrongly”) + volens (“willing, wishing”), from velle (“to wish”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.