Talk:malicious

Deliberate harm versus spite

These are dramatically different meanings, could we get a clearer meaning here? These shouldn't be described under a single entry. Someone in UFC who punches a guy in the face during the match is being deliberately harmful, but is not being spiteful because it's a consented-to sporting event. If after the match had ended and they lost and punched the winner in the face at anger over the result, THAT would be spiteful.

Malice, much like cruelty, I think requires that spiteful element. It would be unusual to see all cases of deliberate harm being called malice. Rather than 'deliberately harmful or spiteful' I think 'deliberately harmful AND spiteful' would more accurately represent the usage of this word. Although... seeing as how deliberateness is kind of inherent to spitefulness, we could appreviate that to just 'spiteful harm' rigt? Etym (talk) 15:35, 30 October 2013 (UTC)