Malversation - etymology from Latin with "male" being bad and "versari" being to behave. It means: "Misconduct in public office." Yet, I wonder how 'public office' became a part of it. Generally, I wonder how words with clear etymologies, such as this, develop other meanings. This word, for example, really should just mean to behave badly.

Well, it came in through French malverser 'to be guilty of malversation, malpractices; to embezzle'. Perhaps as with many French words, it was a lawyer's word for something that politicos do as naturally as fish swim.

There's another word, barratry with three specific meanings: "1. The offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically groundless ones. 2. An unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner. 3. Sale or purchase of positions in church or state." (The last one of which I'd always heard referred to as simony.) Anyway, OFr baraterie 'deception, malversation' < barater 'to cheat'. One who engages in barratry is a barrator, which should not be confused with barrister or barista.

The things I learn in researching posts on this board ...

It turns out that the offense barratry has even a forth meaning:

• law: exciting and encouraging lawsuits and quarrels; they need not be in the courts;
• maritime law: certain frauds by the shipmaster or mariners.
  "It includes every breach of trust committed with dishonest purpose, as by running away with the ship, sinking or deserting her, etc., or by embezzling the cargo."
• church law: simony
• Scot's law: The crime of a judge influenced by bribery in pronouncing judgment.

But the first is the main meaning. Related offenses are maintenance (an outsider unjustifiably stepping in to assist a litigant) and champerty (an outsider so asisting in return for a portion of the proceeds.)

For those interested, a law commission in New South Wales produced an excellent discussion paper. To summarize: "The origin of the offence supposedly lies in the Christian belief in medieval Europe that litigation was inherently evil [particularly given the ugliness of what passed for a 'trial' system] and because it is a virtue to forgive debt." More importantly, encouraging quarrels is not a good thing; nobody likes an ambulance chaser. And yet it is not easy to draw the line between proper "advice and encouragement" and improper "instigation".

Thus there are almost no prosecutions for supposed barratry, etc., and in many places those crimes have been stricken from the statute books in favor of more precisely drawn regulation. In that sense, the terms are largely obsolete.