Let us listen to the story of bad words! Not really! I will tell about words which mean evil things or bad things, not the slang words! All these bad things come from Latin malus, which means bad, evil.
The first one is malign.We all know what does it mean, 'causing harm'. a malign force, a malign effect et cetera cetera ad infinitum, This word comes from Latin malus! This word comes in english via French from Latin malignus, from malus (bad) + genus (sort, kind, birth). In it's verb form, it means to speak evil about, i.e. to defame, to slander. Another adjective form is malignant. Whenever a doctor says 'a malignant growth in your body', probably he says about a cancerous (bad) one!
Let us listen to another one, malaise. This word is originated in Old French as a conflation of mal aise, i.e. bad ease; just as disease (dis ease), lack of ease! Now, we know what does malaise means: uneasiness, physical discomfort.
Anopheles mosquito feeding on a human arm. This mosquito is a vector of malaria
Now, ready for the third one, malaria. Everyone knows about it. This word comes from Italian as a conflation of mala aria, i.e. bad air! This word was an allusion to the former belief that malaria was caused by unwholesome atmosphere and specially by vapors given off by swamps and marshes. Now a days we all know that malaria is a disease which spreads by mosquito.
Sufficient bad news for today's blog. Later I'll bring more bad news to you! Till then, take care.
Adios!
Copyright © 2010, K. M. Tanvir Ahmmed.
Visit my site: All About Words.
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