Etymology

malfeasor

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Today it means: A wrongdoer. Full definition →

Middle English malfesour ← Anglo-Norman malfesour ← Old French mal
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromfaciō“to do”
  2. Old French · derived frommal“evil”
  3. Anglo-Norman · derived frommalfesour
  4. Middle English · inherited frommalfesour
  5. English todaymalfeasor

From Middle English malfesour, from Anglo-Norman malfesour, from Old French mal (“evil”) + fes-, stem of fere (“do, make”), from Latin faciō (“to do”). Compare malefactor, borrowed directly from Latin.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchmal all →

Malpas

Latinfaciō all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.