[
mahl] (n. m.) With all world's evil, it's unsurprising that
mal, the French word for
bad, shows up all over the Anglican world. But it makes one hopeful to know it's mostly associated with things we're trying to fix. We send food to the Third World to help
malnourished children. We strip doctors of licenses when they're guilty of
malpractice. We teach women about prenatal care to avoid malformations. The English prefix (a full word in French) even shows up in that tropical disease we guard travelers about: malaria, which literally means bad air.