“Malediction (noun): An invoking of evil or harm upon somebody or something; pronounced curse; evil talk or slander. Adjective: maledictive, maledictory.
‘He caught up the empty pewter mug at his right and threw it at the clumsy lad with a malediction.'”
Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
