English → Latin
“bad” in Latin
malusunpleasant, distressing, painful, nasty, bad; unpleasant to the senses, sight, smell, taste, touch; bad, evil, wicked, mprāvuscrooked, deformed; depraved, perverse, wicked; vicious, wrong, bad, improperaegersick, ill; weak, feeble; difficult, reluctant, troublesomeadvertōto turn to or towards; to steer or pilot (a ship); to turn the mind to, give attention or draw attention to, attendfoedusfilthy, foul, disgusting, loathsome, ugly, unseemly, detestable, abominable, horrible; disgraceful, vile, obscene, base,incommodusinconvenient, unsuitable, unfit, unseasonable; troublesome, disagreeableanginachoking, suffocation; quinsy, tonsillitislippiōto have bleary, rheumy, watery or inflamed eyes; to water, tear uplippushaving bleary, watery, rheumy or inflamed eyes; half-sighted, mope-eyed, purblind, myopic; blind to one's own faults
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
bad
in a physical sense, malus: bad weather, tempestas mala, adversa, foeda: a bad journey, iter difficile, incommodum: a very bad road, via deterrima: bad money, numi adulterini: a bad throat, angina: bad eyes, oculi lippi: to have bad eyes, lippire: he who has bad eyes, lippus: a bad head, porrigo.
In a moral sense, malus (bad by nature: opposed to bonus): pravus (corrupted, by bad habit): bad by nature and corrupted by habit, malus pravusque: homo nequam (a bad or worthless fellow: opposed to frugi): to have a bad heart, esse ingenio malo pravoque: a bad conscience, conscientia mala: to be in bad repute, male audire: to get on badly, male proficere in aliqua re. According to Döderlein, malus homo is a morally bad man; but nequam, a good-for-nothing man, whose faultiness shows itself in aversion to useful labor, and a propensityto roguish tricks, in opposition to frugi; pravus, a man whose character has taken a vicious direction, in a physical, or intellectual, or moral point of view, in opposition to rectus (Hand-book, p. 131): bad times, tempora iniqua, aspera, luctuosa; temporum iniquitas; temporum calamitates (the badness of the times): bad news, nuncius tristis, acerbus: to hear bad news, malum nuncium audire: a bad wife, mulier or uxor saeva, incommoda et importuna; bad company, socii mali: to set a bad example, esse exempli mali: to try to mend a bad business, rem proclinatam adjuvare.
With reference to health :aeger (bad in health), aegor atque invalidus: very bad, gravi et poricuioso morbo aeger: to fall into a bad state of health, in adversam valetudinem indicere: to be bad again, in morbum recidere; de integro in morbum incidere: to be bad or sick, aegrotare (opposed to valere); aegrotum esse; in morbo esse; morbo laborare or affectum esse; valetudine affectum esse; morbo vexari, or conflictari, iniqua valetudine conflictari: to be very bad, graviter or gravi morbo aegrum esse. Vid: SICK.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for bad?
- The usual Latin words for “bad” are malus, prāvus, aeger; also advertō, foedus, incommodus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.