“This little girl is very smart”
or
“This little girl is very smart”
?
All of a sudden, doubt seizes you.
Do we write the feminine form of the adjective
“malin”
with or without
“g”
?
Two camps exist
.
To discover
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“All the same, it was his niece, this girl who was so
clever
, ”
wrote Queneau in
Les Enfants du limon
(1938).
Émile Zola wrote in
La Terre
(1887):
“Hardly landed in Chartres, Élodie showed herself to be astonishing, as energetic and
clever
as Nénesse.
She had tricked her father, she was already running the house
.
What is the correct form of the adjective?
Read also“Happy new year”, “beautiful day”: why are these expressions laughable?
According to the CNRTL, the word
"malignant"
(sic) dates back to the first half of the 12th century.
Borrowed from the Latin word
“malignus”
which means
“wicked”
, it is defined as follows:
“Who delights in doing evil”
.
From the 16th century, the
"evil"
directly designates the devil in the Christian religion.
From the 17th century, the adjective found a new meaning to designate someone
“who has finesse, cunning, skill”
(Boileau, Art poétique, II, 182).
We also speak of
“malignant disease”
or
“malignant tumor”
to evoke a serious disease, generally fatal.
The opposite of
"benign"
which also takes a
'g'
.
Some authors like Zola or Verlaine write the adjective
“maline”
without
“g”
.
This spelling is indeed found as early as the 16th century, according to the Trésor de la langue française.
It is a form derived from oral use and regional languages, common at that time.
For TLFi, there is a difference in meaning between
“malignant”
and
“malignant”
.
The first would designate someone who wants to hurt others while the second would evoke a cunning, crafty, ingenious person.
When found without the letter
"g"
, it is often used in that sense.
Read also“Despite the fact that”, is this formulation correct?
On the other hand, in its dictionary, the French Academy favors the spelling of the word with a
"g"
.
We also find the word
"maline"
but only in reference to the vocabulary of the navy.
It designates the high tides which take place at the new and at the full moon.
Thus, if the feminine form "maline", in the sense of "malicious, astute" is more and more frequent, it is recommended by Larousse and by the French Academy to use "malignant" rather than "maline" in the feminine. .
