mauvais

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French maulvais, from Old French malvais, malveis (“evil, wicked, bad, of poor or inferior quality", later also "unlucky”), from Late Latin malifātius (“unfortunate”, 4th c.), from Latin malus (“bad”) + fātum (“fate”). According to some sources, influenced in meaning by Frankish *balwīg (“evil, wicked, of poor quality”), which was suspected to have become altered to *malwīg under influence of Latin malus (“bad”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mo.vɛ/, /mɔ.vɛ/
Audio: (file)

Adjective

mauvais (feminine mauvaise, masculine plural mauvais, feminine plural mauvaises, comparative pire, superlative le pire)

bad
wrong, incorrect
Il a choisi la mauvaise réponse.
He chose the wrong response.

Usage notes

Only three French adjectives have an irregular comparative: mauvais (pire), bon (meilleur) and petit (moindre).

Antonyms

bon

Derived terms

Related terms

mal

References

“mauvais”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Norman

Etymology

From Old French malvais (1080), from Late Latin malifātius (“unfortunate”, 4th c.), from Latin malum (“bad”) + fātum (“fate”).

Adjective

mauvais m

(Jersey, Guernsey) bad

Derived terms

mauvais yi (“evil eye”)

Old French

Adjective

mauvais m (oblique and nominative feminine singular mauvaise)

Alternative form of malvais