Maledicere

Maledicere is a Latin verb meaning to curse or to speak ill of someone. In classical Latin it covers both the literal act of uttering a curse and the broader sense of denouncing or slandering a person. The form derives from male- “bad” plus dicere “to say,” giving the sense “to say ill.”

Etymology and related terms: The verb yields the noun maledictio, meaning a curse, and the adjective maledictus, meaning cursed. English inherits several derivatives from Latin, notably malediction (a spoken curse) and the verb maledict (to utter a curse). Romance languages retain cognates such as French malédire and malédiction.

Usage: In Latin literature maledicere is used in religious, legal, or polemical contexts to describe pronouncing a curse upon a person, a deity, or a group, or to condemn someone in strong terms. The sense can be literal or metaphorical, extending to harshly criticizing or slandering someone. The verb is transitive and typically takes a direct object in the accusative when referring to the person cursed.

Conjugation notes: Maledicere belongs to the third conjugation. Present indicative forms include maledico, maledices, maledicit, maledicimus, maledicitis, malediciunt; the perfect is maledixit, maledixerunt. The imperfect and other tenses follow the standard third-conjugation paradigms.

In English usage, maledict and malediction are common borrowings, while maledicere itself is encountered mainly in discussions of Latin grammar and classical texts. See also maledictio, maledictum, and maledictus.