centesimusdecimus

Theme for the month: Hapax legomena

maleficio, maleficere

Definition: to practice black magic

Sententia: Context from section 90 of Apuleius' Apologia:

"quod videantur quaedam fuisse ad maleficiundum invitamenta;"

"because it may be seen that there were certain inducements for the sake of practicing black magic,"

Another sentence, just for fun:

In nocte sacratorum, multae puellae induentes vestes et ferentes "magicam virgam" simulant se maleficere et currunt e limine uno ad alterum ubi crispeant saccos et dicant "Dolus aut Delectatio!"

On the night of hallows (i.e. Halloween), many girls donning robes and bearing "a magic wand" pretend that they practice black magic/are witches and run from one doorway to another where they brandish sacks and say "Trick or Treat!"

This word is featured just in time for Halloween! And Apologia by Apuleius is a work all about magic--it is his defense of himself in a criminal trial against charges that he used magic to beguile a wealthy woman into marrying him. In the section in which the word for today is used, Apuleius says that just because there was a temptation for him to practice magic does not necessarily mean that he did.

An note on etymology: this word probably comes from "maleficium," a noun which can mean black magic/sorcery, and a related word is "malefica," a witch. There also is a word "malefacio" which means "to do wrong," though most of the time it was separated into two words, "male" + "facio."