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Malediction

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:36 pm
by Brazilian dude
malediction \mal-uh-DIK-shun\, noun:
A curse or execration.

There Justice Minister Bola Ige, confronted with the general incivility of local police, placed a malediction on the cads. Said the Hon. Bola Ige, "I pray that God will make big holes in their pockets."
--"Sic Semper Tyrannis! Oppressors Face People's Justice," American Spectator, May 1, 2001

A conspiracy of infamy so black that, when it is finally exposed, its principals shall be forever deserving of the maledictions of all honest men.
--Joseph McCarthy, quoted in Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, by Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes

Malediction comes from Latin maledictio, from maledicere, "to speak ill, to abuse," from Latin male, "badly" + dicere, "to speak, to say."
Portuguese maldição, Spanish maldición, Italian maledizione, French malédiction, Catalan maledicció, Romanian maledicţie/maledicţiune

Brazilian dude

Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:41 pm
by Andrew Dalby
This reminds me of the title of that unique academic journal on rude words, obscenities, etc., called /Maledicta/, edited by Reinhold Aman.

Highly recommended!