mal-, male-, mali-

A description of having a bad odor; a foul stink.

1. Improper treatment or culpable neglect of a patient by the physician.
2. Illegal action by which a person seeks to benefit himself at the cost of others, while in a position of trust.

Faulty or abnormal rotation of a part of the body, especially of the intestines during development.

To abuse, ill-use; to handle roughly or rudely; to ill-treat.

The action of treating badly; the state of being treated badly.

Misconduct in public office or corruption in administration.

A malversation may include any of a number of misdeeds, whether criminal or merely unethical: such as, bribery, mishandling of funds, embezzlement, extortion, misappropriation, subversion of the constitution, treason, corruption, dishonesty, crimes against people, breaking and entering, concealment of felonies or misdemeanors, cheating in elections, etc. The possibilities are quite extensive.

1. Software that does not benefit the computer's owner, and may even harm it, and so it is purely parasitic.
2. A coined word made up of mal plus ware as in "software".

Malware is said to consist of the following malignant or malicious kinds of harmful computer programs: viruses, worms, wabbits, Trojans, spyware, backdoors, exploits, rootkit, keyloggers, dialers, URL injectors, adware, etc.

A form of epilepsy with very brief, unannounced lapses in consciousness.

A petit mal seizure involves a brief loss of awareness, which can be accompanied by blinking or mouth twitching. Petit mal seizures have a very characteristic appearance on an electroencephalogram (EEG).

Petit mal, "little illness" in French, seizures are also known as "absence seizures". Petit mal seizures take the form of a staring spell: the person suddenly seems to be "absent"!