different between sinister vs malice

English

Alternative forms

• sinistre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French sinistra (“left”), from Latin sinestra (“left hand”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?n?st?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?n?st?/
• Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.

Adjective

sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)

1. Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).

   • All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
2. Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

   sinister influences

   the sinister atmosphere of the crypt

3. Of the left side.
   • 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’

4. (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
5. (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
   • 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Judicature

     Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.

   • 1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason

     He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.

Antonyms

• (of the right side): dexter
• (heraldry): dexter

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• insister, resistin, sinistre

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)

1. sinister

Inflection

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zi?n?st?/

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)

1. sinister

Declension

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *senisteros, of unknown origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit ??????? (san?y?n, “more useful, more advantageous”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /si?nis.ter/, [s???n?s?t??r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /si?nis.ter/, [si?nist??r]

Adjective

sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. left

   Synonyms: laevus, scaevus

   Antonym: dexter

2. perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
   • 1st BC, Virgilius

     mores sinistri

     arboribus Notus sinister

3. (religion) auspicious (for Romans) or inauspicious (for Greeks)
   • 1st BC, Virgilius

     sinistra cornix, good omen

   • 2nd century, Apuleius

     sinistro pede profectus, started with bad omen

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

Descendants

References

• sinister in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sinister in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Castiglioni-Mariotti, IL

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French malice, from Latin malitia (“badness, bad quality, ill-will, spite”), from malus (“bad”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?l'?s, IPA^(key): /?mæl?s/

Noun

malice (usually uncountable, plural malices)

1. Intention to harm or deprive in an illegal or immoral way. Desire to take pleasure in another's misfortune.
   • 1981, Philip K. Dick, Valis, ?ISBN, page 67:

     […] not only was there no gratitude (which he could psychologically handle) but downright malice showed itself instead.

2. (law) An intention to do injury to another party, which in many jurisdictions is a distinguishing factor between the crimes of murder and manslaughter.

Synonyms

• (intention to harm): evilness, ill will, wickedness

Derived terms

• malicious

Related terms

• malady

Translations

Further reading

• malice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• malice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Verb

malice (third-person singular simple present malices, present participle malicing, simple past and past participle maliced)

1. To intend to cause harm; to bear malice.

Synonyms

• envy (obsolete), grudge (obsolete), spite

Anagrams

• amelic, claime, maleic

Esperanto

Etymology

From malico +? -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma?lit?se/
• Hyphenation: ma?lic?e
• Rhymes: -it?se

Adverb

malice

1. maliciously

French

Etymology

From Old French malice, borrowed from Latin malitia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ma.lis/

Noun

malice f (plural malices)

1. mischief
2. malice

Related terms

• mal

References

• “malice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Further reading

• “malice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin malitia.

Noun

malice f (oblique plural malices, nominative singular malice, nominative plural malices)

1. malice, evilness, evil intentions
2. malicious act

Descendants

• French: malice

References

• malice on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub