| 释义 |
mal-, prefix|mæl|
formerly often written male- (but pronounced as one syll.), chiefly represents the F. mal adv.:—L. male ill, badly; rarely, as in maltalent, it represents the OF. mal adj.:—L. malus bad. In its advb. use the prefix occurs in many adoptions from Fr., which are sometimes combinations with vbs., as maltreat; sometimes nouns of action formed from such combinations, as malfeasance; and sometimes combinations with adjs., where the prefix serves to reverse the favourable connotation of the word, as maladroit, malcontent. In imitation of these adopted words, mal- has from the 16th c. been prefixed to many Eng. words, to convey the sense ‘ill’, ‘wrong’, ‘improper(ly)’. The words thus modified are chiefly nouns of action, as in malpractice, and many physiological terms, as malassimilation, malformation; occasionally adjs. and vbs., as in malodorous, malappropriate. The formations that have a permanent character are treated in their alphabetical places; examples of the frequent use of the prefix in the creation of nonce-words are mal-accident, mal-application, mal-appointment, mal-association, mal-cultivation, mal-development, mal-direction, mal-feeling, mal-hygiene, mal-identification, mal-institution, mal-instruction, mal-operation, mal-performance, mal-publication, mal-reasoning, mal-use, mal-volition; mal-conceited, mal-created, mal-discontented, mal-shapen adjs.
1608H. Clapham Errour on Left Hand 29 Master Malcontent, me thinks you are malconceited. 1692Rhode Island Col. Rec. (1858) III. 288 Some male-discontented persons. 1714J. Fortescue-Aland Fortescue's Absol. & Lim. Mon. Pref. 13 It is owing to Passion and Interest, and not to the Male-Institution of the Law. 1715M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 10 The Expression and Malepublication of the respective criminal Contents of such Scandalous Libels. 1799R. Warner Walk (1800) 6 There are no limits to the vicious conceptions, malassociations, and wild incongruities of false taste. 1803Spirit Pub. Jrnls. VII. 22 If, however, it so happens that either mal-accident or your own discretion..has prevented [etc.]. 1808E. S. Barrett Miss-led General 125 These malappointments took place..when the army had ceased to be a matter of mere parade. 1822E. Nathan Langreath I. 81 This maloperation of the affections..may be best prevented..by that wholesome species of dissipation. 1824Examiner 423/2 A man I never saw, and therefore could have no malfeeling towards. 1839Blackw. Mag. XLV. 812 Fearful gropings to imitate what they render malcreated and hideous. 1840Mill Diss. & Disc. (1859) I. 94 The question often is, what is least prejudicial to the intellect, uncultivation or malcultivation. 1841Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) VI. 161 That mal-reasoning which makes men expect [etc.]. 1843Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. i. 192 The abuse, however, or rather mal-use, of an article is no argument against it. a1849Poe Wks. 1864 III. 369 The heart is stirred, and the mind does not lament its mal-instruction. 1855Miss Cobbe Intuit. Mor. 155 He proceeds..to guard against its malapplication by arguing that [etc.]. 1870O. W. Holmes Mechanism in Th. & Mor. in Old Vol. Life (1893) 305 So to rate the gravity of a mal-volition by its consequences is the merest sensational materialism. 1887Harper's Mag. May 952 Beggars abound, hideously malshapen. 1888T. Gill in Amer. Naturalist Oct. 926 Incredible as such a malidentification on the part of Pictet must appear. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 614 Intensified and fostered by conditions of malhygiene. 1899Ibid. VII. 116 The maldirection of movement is much increased when the aid of the sight is denied. Ibid. 732 The altered shapes of cells, regarded by Sachs as evidence of congenital maldevelopment. 1938R. G. Collingwood Princ. Art xii. 283 It is the malperformance of the act which converts what is merely psychic (impression) into what is conscious (idea). 1964M. Critchley Developmental Dyslexia ix. 60 Dyslexics show only a mild tendency towards a malperformance of higher order right-left orientation exercises. |