Ok the explanation of the etymology of todays word "malefactor" has me curious/confused.

"The combining form male- meaning 'evil' occurs in words derived from Latin."

I looked some things up and found that "mal" is generally to mean "bad" so that bit makes sense but I looked up "female" and as far as I can tell the 2 words have no real connection as far as the whole "male" / "male" thing goes.
female was derived from "femina" and originally "femella" (which I have conflicting info that it means either "girl" or "to suck" referring to breastfeeding)
So the only reason female and male are similar is because they just tidied up the spelling so it looked closer but actually is completely not related.

does the prefix "fe" mean anything?

it makes no sense to be that 2 words relating to opposites of the same thing would have no real dichotomy in their roots.
Like even in a biblical sense... I would have imagined that is "male" meant "evil" or is "mal" meant bad or "with sin" that female would then must mean "without sin" or "without evil".

Something is amiss here because it seems there should be more of a connection/balance between the 2 words etymology considering the nature of opposites and the importance of what the subject matter is. I mean its not like , oh i dunno... "read" and "tread" or something. maybe thats a bad example, I dunno.

We're not talking apples and oranges here. Were talking apples and apples...just diff variety/gender of apples.

so does anyone have any further info on the whole male/female - male/male connections?

thanks

Latin male is an adverb which means 'badly, wrongly, wickedly, etc'. Latin malus, -a, -,um is an adjective 'bad, evil'. The word female is English. The Latin word for a woman was femina, and there was another form, a diminutive femella 'girl' (i.e., literally 'little woman'). The -VllV is a suffix and not part of the word, but is added on to make it a diminutive. The Latin word is usually derived from a Proto)indo-European root *dhēi- 'to suck'. The -min- in femina is probably an old (as in obsolete) suffix that made a verb into a noun/adjective and with passive meaning. So, the reconstructed meaning of femina could be 'someone who suckles'. English male is (via French) from Latin masculus, a double diminutive (i.e., the c and the l, cf. homunculus 'manikin') of mas 'male, masuline'. Latin, like English, has words that are similar, but different. But the fact that English male and Latin male 'badly' are spelled the same is an accident of history.

what men aren't evil?

(run, duck and hide icon!)

what men aren't evil?

I didn't say either way on that, because this is a words issue. Just that English male and Latin male 'badly' are not related to one another.

(run, duck and hide icon!)

Viaduct?

OTOH, I once once asked if the -culus in Latin masculus was possibly related to Latin cūlus 'arse, buttock'. I had to tell him not very likely, though it might be related to cunnus.

thank you zmjezhd . That was helpful. I was just trying to make a meaningful connection where there wasnt one and when it didnt follow thru I got confused.

But it would have made more sense if I was right...I mean in a Biblical conspiracy sense it would. Maybe it just makes more sense in my head tho... thats entirely possible haha

anyways..thanks for clearing that up for me. you saved me from losing a whole day hunting and getting lost in wikipedia and other info sites hehe

thanks for clearing that up for me

You're welcome, and welcome to the board.