malignityn.
/məˈlɪɡnᵻti/, U.S. /məˈlɪɡnədi/ 1. † b. In plural. Malignant feelings or actions. Obsolete.
a. Wicked and deep-rooted ill will or hatred; intense and persistent desire to cause suffering to another person; propensity to this feeling. Also, in weakened sense: mischievousness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > harmfulness > ill-will > [noun]
evil willc897
leth971
loathc1175
atterness?c1225
ill1303
maltalentc1330
ill-willingnessa1340
talenta1380
malignityc1390
ill willa1400
fellnessc1410
malevolencec1454
malignation?c1500
hatefulness1548
malignance1605
malevolency1635
malignancy1640
reptilism1821
fiendism1852
unbenignity1867
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > unkindness > ill will, malevolence > [noun]
evil willc897
leth971
loathc1175
atterness?c1225
ill1303
maltalentc1330
ill-willingnessa1340
talenta1380
malignityc1390
ill willa1400
with hard (also sorry) gracec1405
malevolencec1454
malignation?c1500
malignitiesa1529
hatefulness1548
malignance1605
fiendishness1613
malevolency1635
malignancy1640
fellness1678
malevolentness1727
malignantness1727
reptilism1821
unbenignity1867
c1390 G. Chaucer Parson's Tale 513 Thanne comth malignitee, thurgh which a man anoyeth his neighebore pryuely.
a1500 in F. A. Gasquet Collectanea Anglo-premonstratensia (1906) III. 173 (MED) Ye nor none that longeth to you never hade, noght hath, nor schall hafe any causes of malignyte nor wrath resonableby agenst me.
1533–4 Act 25 Hen. VIII c. 12 Persons..whiche beare malice and malignite to al the kinges procedinges in the said deuorse.
1593 R. Harvey Philadelphus 17 Jealousie and malignity are two blinde guids.
1611 M. Smith in Bible (King James) Transl. Pref. sig. ⁋3 Neither is there any likelihood, that enuie and malignitie died, and were buried with the ancient.
1641 Remonstr. State Kingdom 3 The Commons..do yet finde an abounding Malignity, and opposition in those parties, and factions, who have been the cause of those evils.
1775 S. Johnson Let. 21 July (1992) II. 253 There are few things that are worthy of anger, and still fewer that can justify malignity.
1797 A. Radcliffe Italian I. iv. 124 A dark malignity overspread the features of the monk.
1803 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) II. 300 The falsehood and malignity of the charge.
1818 W. Hazlitt Lect. Eng. Poets (1870) iii. 84 Satan is not the principle of malignity, or of abstract love of evil.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. i. 87 He..felt towards those whom he had deserted that peculiar malignity which has, in all ages, been characteristic of apostates.
1863 A. P. Stanley Lect. Jewish Church I. v. 107 His flight is occasioned rather by the malignity of his countrymen than by the enmity of the Egyptians.
1923 A. Huxley Antic Hay x. 150 He laughed a happy little laugh, full of such a childlike diabolism, such an innocent gay malignity that it seemed as though a little leprechaun had suddenly taken the financier's place in Gumbril's best arm-chair.
1957 S. J. Perelman Road to Miltown 35 You may mistakenly attribute your predicament to my malignity, to voodoo, djinns, etc.
1991 G. Watson Brit. Lit. since 1945 (BNC) 14 Iris Murdoch's novel A Fairly Honourable Defeat (1970) poses the far more terrible hypothesis of a being utterly without compassion who takes delight in wrecking the lives of others: his self-sufficient malignity seemingly motiveless.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > unkindness > ill will, malevolence > [noun]
evil willc897
leth971
loathc1175
atterness?c1225
ill1303
maltalentc1330
ill-willingnessa1340
talenta1380
malignityc1390
ill willa1400
with hard (also sorry) gracec1405
malevolencec1454
malignation?c1500
malignitiesa1529
hatefulness1548
malignance1605
fiendishness1613
malevolency1635
malignancy1640
fellness1678
malevolentness1727
malignantness1727
reptilism1821
unbenignity1867
a1529 J. Skelton Colyn Cloute (?1545) sig. B.vi Raylynge haynously And dysdaynously Of preestly dygnytes But theyr malygnytes.
1607 J. Carpenter Plaine Mans Spirituall Plough 212 Nor would the Diuell..surcease..his cursed malignities against Christ.
1793 W. Roberts Looker-on No. 46. 368 She had a soul superior to all the malignities of her sex.
1861 J. G. Holland Lessons in Life xv. 220 If they..clothe these black malignities in silken phrases we hear them with a certain kind of pleasure.
1895 K. Grahame Golden Age 149 We blindly revelled in the contemplation and discussion of her past tyrannies, crimes, malignities.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > heinousness > [noun]
monstruosity1402
grievoustyc1410
outrageousnessc1450
enormityc1480
atrocity1534
malignitya1535
monstruousness1545
heinousness1563
monstrousness1574
ugliness1601
enormousnessa1631
monstrosity1639
enormance1682
flagrancy1714
atrociousness1731
society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > [noun] > extreme wickedness
villainy?c1225
cursedhead1382
cursednessa1400
grievoustyc1410
enormityc1480
atrocity1534
malignitya1535
heinousness1563
enormousnessa1631
enormance1682
flagitiousness1692
flagrancy1714
atrociousness1731
outrageousness1869
a1535 T. More Dialoge of Comfort (1553) ii. xvii. sig. L.ii We..are consumed & wasted & come to nought in our own malignitie.
1654 J. Bramhall Just Vindic. Church of Eng. iii. 33 A title..laid aside by Protestants, not so much for any malignity that was in it, as for the ill sounds sake.
a1677 J. Taylor Contempl. State Man (1684) ii. x. 290 So great is the malignity of a Mortal sin.
1702 Eng. Theophrastus 180 We imitate the good out of emulation, and the bad out of our natural corruption and malignity.
1860 E. B. Pusey Minor Prophets 178 The more God reveals to any, what He Is,..the more utter malignity it is..to have indeed said to Him, ‘On Thy terms I will have none of Thee.’
3. Medicine. = malignancy n. 5a. Now rare.Now chiefly in English-language texts from non-English-speaking countries.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > characteristics > [noun] > degree of intensity > violence or severity
malicea1382
vehemency?1541
malignity1543
acutenessa1644
virulency1651
malignancy1693
virulence1748
severity1808
acuity1839
fulminancy1887
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. ii. f. 28/2 Anthrax is nothyng els but a Carbuncle tourned in to malygnite, whyche hathe not been well healed.
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica ii. iii. 73 Wounds which are made with weapons excited by the Loadstone, contract a malignity, and become of more difficult cure. View more context for this quotation
1670 I. Walton Life R. Hooker 107 in Lives He fell into a long and sharp sickness..from the malignity of which he was never recovered.
1747 G. Berkeley Tar-water in Plague in Wks. (1871) III. 481 An erysipelas, which sheweth a degree of malignity nearest to the plague.
1759 W. Robertson Hist. Scotl. iv, in Hist. Wks. (1813) I. 300 The vigour of his constitution surmounted the malignity of his disease.
1806 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 15 311 The natural small-pox, which almost every year desolated Mexico and Peru, has lost its malignity in those climates.
1865 Cornhill Mag. May 599 Typhus fever..has assumed unwonted activity and malignity.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. IV. 836 Early implication of neighbouring portions of the larynx..points to malignity.
1977 Neoplasma 24 445 The authors discuss the histological criteria for diagnosis and differential diagnosis and judging benignity and/or malignity of hemangiopericytomas.
1999 Ann. Thoracic Surg. 67 1456 Eight tumors showed benign features, whereas two showed distinct features of malignity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > insalubrity > [noun]
infirmity1481
unwholesomenessa1513
contagiousness1530
evilness1563
malignity1585
unhealthfulness1598
untemperaturea1604
unhealthsomeness1613
healthlessness1655
unsoundness1660
insalubrity1663
unhealthiness1666
unsalubrity1694
malignancy1732
pestilentiousness1748
mal-influence1792
insanitariness1881
insanitation1884
1585 W. Bayley Disc. Mithridatium sig. B7v For the better correction of the malignity of the beast [sc. a viper] which hapely might remaine in the flesh.
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. xv. 77 Coagulated salts or tartar..doe reach to the uppermost degree of their malignity.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 250 They say, that the Owes of the Sea doe here much increase the malignitie of the aire.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §74 I conceive that Opium and the like, make the Spirits flie rather by Malignity, than by Cold.
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1656 (1955) III. 181 Cinders..depriv'd of their Sulphury & Arsenic malignity.
1705 J. Addison Remarks Italy 230 The Sides of the Grotto are mark'd with Green, as high as the Malignity of the Vapour reaches.
1707–12 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husb. (1721) I. 251 Some propose to Macerate them [sc. acorns] in Water first, to extract their Malignity.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 457. ⁋3 The Lady Blast..has such a particular Malignity in her Whisper, that it blights like an Easterly Wind.
1777 E. Burke Let. to Sheriffs Bristol 4 The other [statute] (for a partial suspension of the Habeas Corpus) appears to me of a much deeper malignity.
1858 N. Hawthorne Jrnl. 3 Feb. in French & Ital. Notebks. (1980) ii. 53 The atmosphere certainly has a peculiar quality of malignity.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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