malus

Etymology 1

From Latin malus, by analogy with bonus (“additional compensation”). Doublet of mal.

noun

1. (business) The loss or return of performance-related compensation originally paid by an employer to an employee as a result of the discovery of a defect in the performance.
   When bank fired the loan originator, they recovered the last two years of her bonuses under the malus clause in her contract.
   The existence of boni and mali for the different risks can be interpreted through the sign of estimated covariances. c. 1997, ASTIN Bulletin, page 48
   If the boni and mali do not depend on the frequency of claims, the average bonus-malus coefficient increases with the frequency. 2000, Jean Pinquet, “Experience Rating through Heterogeneous Models”, in Georges Dionne, editor, Handbook of Insurance, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 462
   Bidders with inferior quality, higher transport costs or additional switching costs receive a Malus which decreases their bid automatically to incorporate the disadvantages. Bonus Malus Auctions are used by about 50% of all companies. 2008, Henner Gimpel, Nicolas R. Jennings, Gregory E. Kersten, Axel Ockenfels, Christof Weinhardt, Negotiation, Auctions, and Market Engineering: International Seminar, Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, November 12-17, 2006, Revised Selected Papers, Springer Science & Business Media, page 62
   Akramkhanov et al. (2010) also suggested a system of boni and mali on taxes to support the implementation of measures to achieve both water saving and salinity control (Table 3.3.1). 2014, Akmal Akramkhanov, Bernhard Tischbein, Usman Khalid Awan, “Effective management of soil salinity – revising leaching norms”, in John P. A. Lamers, Asia Khamzina, Inna Rudenko, Paul L. G. Vlek, editors, Restructuring Land Allocation, Water Use and Agricultural Value Chains: Technologies, Policies and Practices for the Lower Amudarya Region, V & R unipress, Bonn University Press, page 131
   If both the estimated payment- and checking-rate is not above a threshold in a district, the contracted party will receive a malus for that district, and no bonus for any other district. 2016, David Aveiro, Robert Pergl, Duarte Gouveia, Advances in Enterprise Engineering X: 6th Enterprise Engineering Working Conference, EEWC 2016, Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal, May 30-June 3 2016, Proceedings, Springer, page 26
2. (rare) A penalty or negative thing.
   The driver game has a game screen with less number of properties and representations (see Fig. 3(a)). […] If the user completes a level within the allocated time, then the user gets a bonus and will be advanced to another level[,] and if user is unable to complete a level, then a malus is provided and the user gets retained in the same level. 2016, Rosa Bottino, Johan Jeuring, Remco C. Veltkamp, Games and Learning Alliance: 5th International Conference, GALA 2016, Utrecht, The Netherlands, December 5–7, 2016, Proceedings, Springer, page 305

Etymology 2

From Latin mālus and translingual Malus.

noun

1. A plant of the genus Malus (the apples).
   It leads to a certain extent to an evergreen type Docynia which is distributed in the Himalayas and western China and whose magnificence of bloom I learned to know on my travels in Yunnan; it is distinct from from genuine maluses. 1922, Gardener’s Chronicle of America, volume 26, page 228, column 2
   Malus ‘Dartmouth’ is a variety of M. pumila, the wild crab-apple, and is only one of the several maluses which offer a wider choice than the commonly planted ‘John Downie,’ lemoinei and eleyi. 1959, Gardeners Chronicle & Gardening Illustrated, volume 145, page 65, column 2
   In gardens which are rather open and exposed, the ornamental crabs or maluses are generally less satisfactory than the cherries as flowering trees. 1968, Agriculture in Northern Ireland, volume 43, page 290

Etymology 3

noun

1. plural of malu