Word
malcolm
Phoneticsmal·colm
/ˈmæɫkəm/
Definitions
01male given name
n. a common first name for a man.
n. A masculine given name, widely used in English-speaking countries and historically common among Scottish royalty.
“Malcolm X was a famous leader who fought for civil rights in America.”
“The historian noted that King Malcolm III played a crucial role in the development of the medieval Scottish state.”
02surname
n. a family name or last name.
n. A surname of Scottish origin, often functioning as a patronymic derived from the given name.
“The author of the book is a woman named Janet Malcolm.”
“Several families with the surname Malcolm settled in the region during the nineteenth-century migration period.”
Etymology
Royal name in Scotland, anglicised from various historical Goidelic names equivalent to Scottish Gaelic Maol Chaluim or Calum, Irish Maol Colm, Middle Irish Máel Coluim, Old Irish Máel Columb (literally “devotee of [Saint] Columba”); proper nouns derived from máel (“tonsured”) from Proto-Celtic *mailos, and columb (“dove”) from Latin columbus.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.