Yfelwillende

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a hostile or spiteful disposition toward others, wishing them harm in the manner of an Old English ill-willed person
2. Bearing ill will and a malicious inclination, as a person who wishes harm upon those around them
3. Describing a mind or temperament inclined toward malice and enmity, especially in early English writing

Etymology: Yfelwillende is an Old English adjective, built from "yfel," meaning "evil" or "bad" (the ancestor of modern "evil"), and "willende," the present participle of "willan," "to will or wish." Put together, the literal sense is "evil-willing," or wishing ill on someone. The word is attested in Old English texts, where it appears in a range of religious and moral writing, and it belongs to a pattern of compounds in which "yfel" pairs with a verb to describe a bad disposition. The word's most interesting feature is its ancestry. Its second element, "willende," shows the Old English present participle ending "-ende," which is the same ending that gives modern English its "-ing" forms. Modern "willing" descends from the same verb, so the word's structure is visible even though its meaning has narrowed out of common use. Its close relative in modern English, "evil-willing," is a rare literal rendering rather than a standard dictionary entry, but the compound transparently reveals the original idea.