malignity

Etymology

From Middle English malignete, malignitee, malignyte, malyngnite, from Middle French maligneté, from Latin malignitās. By surface analysis, malign +‎ -ity.

(a group of goblins): Coined by David Malki in the 30 October 2009 Wondermark webcomic strip “Supernatural Collective Nouns”.

Noun

malignity (countable and uncountable, plural malignities)

The quality of being malign or malignant; badness, evilness, monstrosity, depravity, maliciousness.
Synonyms: baseness, depravity, malice, perversion; see also Thesaurus:badness, Thesaurus:iniquity
- 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 251–252:
  He had some advantage in the difference of our weapons; for his sword, as I recollect, was longer than mine, […] His obvious malignity of purpose never for a moment threw him off his guard, and he exhausted every feint and strategem proper to the science of defence; while, at the same time, he mediated the most desperate catastrophe to our rencounter.
- 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter LIII, in Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:
  His enjoyment of the spectacle I furnished, as he sat with his arms folded on the table, shaking his head at me and hugging himself, had a malignity in it that made me tremble.
- 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 265:
  On the door-threshold Mina turned, and her eyes fastened on Woona in concentrated malignity.
A non-benign cancer; a malignancy.
- 2005, R.L. Abada et al., “Multiple metastases of a mandibular ameloblastoma”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎:
  The absence of any histological sign of malignity in the primary tumor and in the metastases, as observed in our patient, is remarkable.
(fantasy, neologism, collective) A group of goblins.
- 2013, Terry Pratchett, Raising Steam (Discworld; 40), London: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 31:
  There was a whole malignity‡ of goblins up on the roof, but if you wanted your clacks to fly fast, you didn’t use the term out loud.
  ‡ The official collective noun for a bunch of goblins.
- 2022, JT Lawrence, The Haunted Portal (Cursebreaker; 2), Muonic Press Inc, →ISBN:
  A malignity of goblins chattered loudly, some of them standing on their table.
- 2023, Nova Nelson, All the Faire’s a Stage (Magical Renaissance Faire Mysteries; 7), The Faire Ladies LLC, →ISBN:
  As a malignity of goblins giggled drunkenly in a corner booth, Fabian and I approached the table with Isaac and Hakim.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:malignity.

References

“malignity, n.”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
Catholic Archives Notre Dame University
Strong's Concordance
King James Version of the Bible