Word of the Day for Wednesday July 13, 2005 malfeasance \mal-FEE-zuhn(t)s\, noun: Wrongdoing, misconduct, or misbehavior, especially by a public official. But more often than not the same board members who were removed by the chancellor for malfeasance subsequently manage to get reelected in a political process that defies any form of accountability. --Diane Ravitch and Joseph Viteritti, [1]New Schools for a New Century Cagney family conjecture was that Grandpop Nelson, with the temper of a dozen Furies, had likely committed some malfeasance in his native town forcing him to change his name when he left. --John McCabe, [2]Cagney _________________________________________________________ Malfeasance is derived from Old French malfaisant, present participle of malfaire, "to do evil," from Latin malefacere, from male, "badly" + facere, "to do." References 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0300078749/ref=nosim/lexico 2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0786705809/ref=nosim/lexico Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=malfeasance