malus

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɪ.ləs/, /ˈmɑː.ləs/, /ˈmæ.ləs/

Noun

malus (plural maluses or mali)

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.

   • c. 1997, ASTIN Bulletin, page 48:

     The existence of boni and mali for the different risks can be interpreted through the sign of estimated covariances.

   • 2000, Jean Pinquet, “Experience Rating through Heterogeneous Models”, in Georges Dionne, editor, Handbook of Insurance, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 462:

     If the boni and mali do not depend on the frequency of claims, the average bonus-malus coefficient increases with the frequency.

   • 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, →ISBN, page 62:

     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.

   • 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, →ISBN, page 131:

     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).

   • 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, →ISBN, page 26:

     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.

2. (rare) A penalty or negative thing.
   • 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, →ISBN, page 305:

     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.

Noun

malus (plural maluses)

1. A plant of the genus Malus (the apples).
   • 1922, Gardener’s Chronicle of America, volume 26, page 228, column 2:

     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 genuine maluses.

   • 1959, Gardeners Chronicle & Gardening Illustrated, volume 145, page 65, 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.

   • 1968, Agriculture in Northern Ireland, volume 43, page 290:

     In gardens which are rather open and exposed, the ornamental crabs or maluses are generally less satisfactory than the cherries as flowering trees.

Noun

malus

1. plural of malu