superlative suffix of adjectives and adverbs, Middle English alteration (by influence of unrelated most) of Old English -mest, a double superlative, from -mo, -ma (cognate with Latin -mus; compare Old English forma "first," meduma "midmost") + superlative ending -est. Now generally mistaken as a suffixal form of most.

word-forming element of Latin origin meaning "bad, badly, ill, poorly, wrong, wrongly," from French mal (adv.), from Old French mal (adj., adv.) "evil, ill, wrong, wrongly" (9c.), from Latin male (adv.) "badly," or malus (adj.) "bad, evil" (fem. mala, neuter malum), from Proto-Italic *malo-, from PIE *mol-o-, probably from PIE root *mel- (3) "false, bad, wrong."

Most Modern English words with this element are 19c. coinages. It generally implies imperfection or deficiency, but often it is simply negative (as in malfeasance, malcontent). It is equivalent to dys- and caco- of Greek origin and Germanic mis- (1).

word-forming element meaning "breast," from Latin mamma "breast" (which is cognate with mamma). The form mammato-, used in cloud terminology in reference to smooth, rounded shapes, is from Latin mammatus.

before vowels mast-, word-forming element meaning "female breast, mammary gland," from Greek mastos "woman's breast," from madan "to be wet, to flow," from PIE *mad- "wet, moist, dripping" (source also of Latin madere "be moist;" Albanian mend "suckle;" see mast (n.2)).

combining form meaning "mother," from Latin māter (see mother (n.1)).

word-forming element meaning "of or relating to a mother," also "of or relating to women," from combining form of Latin māter (genitive mātris) "mother" (see mother (n.1)).

word-forming element meaning "maximum, very large or very long for its kind," abstracted from maximum.