Word of the Day Archive
Sunday June 22, 2008
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."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for malediction
