maledicta

English

Etymology

From Latin maledicta, plural of maledictum (“curse, insult”).

Noun

maledicta pl (plural only)

1. Profane language of all kinds.
   • 1977 October 30, Edith Herman, “*%&!$*&#-X!!!: Naughty Words — Reinhold Aman knows them all”, in Toledo Blade‎^[1]:

     For 11 years now, “day and night, every Saturday and Sunday,” Aman had devoted his life to what he calls maledicta, the scholarly study of profanity and insults.

   • 1987, John Solt, “Japanese Sexual Maledicta”, in Reinhold Aman, editor, The Best of Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression:

     Most foreigners believe that Japanese is sparse in maledicta, which is not true. However, they can be quite subtle at times and tend to bypass the square-heads conditioned to blunt ravings of the “up yours, shithead, motherfucker” variety.

   • 2007, Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature, page 340:

     We see this in the third commandment, in the popularity of hell, damn, God, and Jesus Christ, and in many of the terms for taboo language itself: profanity (that which is not sacred), blasphemy (literally "evil speech" but in practice disrespect toward a deity), and swearing, cursing, and oaths, which were originally secured by the invocation of a deity or one of his symbols, like the tabernacle, chalice, and wafer incongruously found in Catholic maledicta.

   • 2022, Tara Lazar, Absurd Words, page 112:

     Other types of maledicta are jarns, nittles, and quimps.

Derived terms

• maledicta balloon

Anagrams

• lactamide

Latin

Noun

maledicta

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of maledictum