malignos

Malignos is a term used in Spanish and Portuguese to form the masculine plural of the adjective maligno, meaning malignant or harmful. It can function as an adjective (for example, los tumores malignos) or as a noun referring to malignant entities or, in everyday language, to malevolent individuals. The form is distinct from benignos, which means benign. In medical and scientific contexts, malignos is commonly used to describe cancerous or dangerous conditions, while in non-medical usage it can describe actions, intentions, or beings that are considered evil or harmful.

Etymology: Malignos derives from Latin malignus, meaning evil or harmful. The Latin root malus means bad, and the suffix -gnus connects to related Romance-language terms. The word is cognate with English malignant as well as with similar terms in other Romance languages.

Usage in medicine and language: In clinical Spanish and Portuguese, phrases such as tumores malignos or neoplasias malignas denote cancerous tumors, and terms like cáncer maligno or tumor maligno are common. In everyday speech, malignos can describe malicious actions, infections, or characters. Regional variations exist in preferred terms; for example, cancer is often used as the broader label in both languages, with malignos serving as a descriptive or specific descriptor.

See also: malignant, malignancy. Note that malignos does not denote a single disease; it is a grammatical form used to describe malignant qualities, conditions, or entities in Spanish and Portuguese.