Malory

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A common English surname and occasionally used given name, particularly associated with Sir Thomas Malory, the 15th-century author of Arthurian legend
2. An English family name and personal name, most notably borne by the medieval writer credited with composing Le Morte d'Arthur
3. A surname and forename used in English-speaking cultures, historically known through Sir Thomas Malory's influential collection of Arthurian tales

Etymology: Sir Thomas Malory, the fifteenth-century English writer who compiled the Arthurian tales in "Le Morte Darthur," is the source of this surname-turned-word, though the word itself survives mainly as an adjective-free proper name. It is not a common English word in its own right: "Malory" is the surname of the author, and the name derives from Old French "mal oire," meaning "ill-hearing" or "badly heard," a medieval nickname that was later fixed as a family surname. Because the author's name is the only real use, most readers meet it in the title of his work or in references to the Round Table legends. Its appearance in English is therefore almost entirely as a personal name, and the surname itself is documented in English records from the medieval period onward.