Malfeasance is wrongdoing by somebody holding public office. Official malfeasance, allegations of malfeasance, corporate malfeasance.
It is a term of art and means doing something unlawful, as against misfeasance, doing a lawful thing badly, and nonfeasance, failing to act at all. The three together cover every way an official can go wrong.
1nounmalfeasanceWrongdoing by somebody holding public office.
“The mayor was removed from office for malfeasance after taking money from builders.”
malfeasance is a wrongdoing.
The parts are evil and doing. Malfeasance is an official doing evil from inside the office he was given.
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Old French malfaisance comes from mal, badly, plus faire, to do, from Latin facere.
Latin
malefaciō — to do evil
Old French
malfaisance
English, today
malfeasance
Built from
From Old French malfaisance, derived from malfaire, maufaire (“to do evil”), from Latin malefaciō (“to do evil”), from male (“evilly”) + faciō (“to do, make”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA