malefactor

• malefactour (obsolete)

From Middle English malefactour, from Late Latin malefactor, from Latin malefaciō, from male (“evilly”) + factus (“made or done”), past participle of facio (“I make or do”).

• (US) enPR: măʹləfăk'tər, IPA^(key): /ˈmæləˌfæktɚ/

• Audio (US):

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malefactor (plural malefactors)

1. A criminal or felon.
2. An evildoer.
   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevensony, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

     "Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,” said the lawyer. “This suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our intention to make an end of it. Poole, here, and I are going to force our way into the cabinet. If all is well, my shoulders are broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything should really be amiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back, you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good sticks and take your post at the laboratory door.

   • 2013, Kazerad, Katia: Try a few more things, in: Prequel -or- Making a Cat Cry: The Adventure (webcomic), April 23 2013

     Though your unseen malefactor’s actions may give the impression of confidence… Vaermina suspects he is terrified his plan will go astray.

• See also Thesaurus:criminal
• See also Thesaurus:villain

• benefactor

• maleficent

From malefaciō +‎ -tor, corresponding to male (“evilly”) + factor (“maker”). Used in Old Latin by Plautus and then more commonly in Late Latin.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ma.ɫɛˈfak.tɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ma.leˈfak.t̪or]

malefactor m (genitive malefactōris); third declension

1. wrongdoer, evildoer, malefactor, villain

   Synonym: maleficiārius

Third-declension noun.

• benefactor

• “malefactor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "malefactor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• malefactor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.