ETYMOLOGY
from French maldisant (evil speaker), use as noun of present participle of maldire, maudire (to speak evil), from maledicere; from male (badly) + dicere (to speak, say)
EXAMPLE
“… He is to blame (faith Martiall, and further he brandes him with a knavish name) that will be wittie in another mans booke. How then will scoffing readers scape this marke of a maledizant? whose wits have no other worke, nor better worth then to flout, and fall out?…”
From: A Worlde of Wordes, or, Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English
Collected by John Florio, 1598
Lexicophilia 