The corpus record — Latin

maleficium

maleficium · n

an evil deed, misdeed, wickedness, offence, crime

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino 25 · 18.87/10k
Apologia 13 · 6.05/10k
De Bello Hispaniensi 3 · 4.96/10k
De Patientia 2 · 4.42/10k
De Inventione 13 · 3.93/10k
Pro P. Sulla 3 · 3.22/10k
Pro M. Tullio 1 · 2.91/10k
Florida 2 · 2.54/10k
Pro M. Caelio 2 · 2.36/10k
Ab urbe condita, books 6-10 - 7 3 · 2.27/10k
In P. Vatinium testem interrogatio 1 · 2.23/10k
Pro A. Cluentio 4 · 1.93/10k

Densest 12 of 42 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

mălĕfĭcĭum — Lewis & Short

mălĕfĭcĭum, ĭi, n.maleficus,

I an evil deed, misdeed, wickedness, offence, crime.

I Lit.

A In gen. (class.): ne conscii sint ipsi malefici suis, Plaut. Rud. 4, 7, 21: conscientia maleficiorum, Cic. Phil. 5, 6, 15: committere, admittere, to commit, id. Rosc. Am. 22, 62: exsilio multare, id. Caecin. 34, 100: supplicia pro maleficiis metuere, id. Rosc. Am. 3, 8.—

B In partic. (mostly post-Aug.).

1 Fraud, deception, adulteration: me maleficio vinceres? Plaut. Truc. 2, 6, 20 Speng.; Quint. 7, 4, 36; Plin. 12, 25, 54, § 120.—

2 Enchantment, sorcery, Tac. A. 2, 69 Orell. N. cr.; App. M. 9, p. 230, 24; 231, 28; cf. magica, id. Mag. p. 278, 21; Schol. Juv. 6, 595.—

II Transf., mischief, hurt, harm, injury, wrong inflicted (acc. to maleficus, II.): pro maleficio beneficium reddere, Ter. Phorm. 2, 2, 22: ab injuria et maleficio se prohibere, Caes. B. G. 2, 28: sine ullo maleficio, id. ib. 1, 7; id. B. C. 2, 20: novis corrumperent maleficiis, Liv. 7, 20: maleficii occasione omissa, id. 9, 12 al. —Hence, transf. (abstr. pro concr.), a noxious insect, vermin: ita non nasci maleficia, Plin. 18, 30, 73, § 308; 8, 59, 84, § 229; 20, 13, 51, § 133.

In the wild

maleficiis Cicero, Pro Sex. Roscio Amerino 118
maleficio Apuleius, Apologia 30
maleficio Cicero, De Inventione 2.60
maleficium Cicero, In L. Catilinam 3.4
maleficiis Apuleius, Florida 20
maleficiis Apuleius, Apologia 69.p1

6 of 133 attestations shown.

Where it came from

No etymology authority pointer is recorded for this lemma yet — an honest gap, not an omission.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.