Meaning

noun the willful and unlawful crippling or mutilation of another person

noun violent and needless disturbance

originInherited from Middle English mayehem, late form of maym, from Anglo-Norman mahaim (“mutilation”), from Old French meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”) (compare Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”), Old Norse meiða (“to injure”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change”). More at…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0