The word 'spoiled' originates from the Latin spolium, meaning the skin or hide stripped from an animal, which extended to signify plunder or booty. This concept of taking something valuable and stripping it away evolved in Old French into espoillier, meaning to plunder or strip of possessions. In English, the verb 'spoil' broadened to encompass the ideas of damaging, ruining, or causing decay, whether of objects, food, or character. The addition of the past participle suffix '-ed' creates an adjective describing the resultant state—be it a child whose character has been negatively affected by overindulgence, or food that has undergone decay.

Structure: spoil + ed - spoil: From Latin spolium (plunder, skin stripped from an animal), via Old French espoillier. Functions as the verb root meaning to plunder, damage, or decay. - ed: From Old English -od, -ad, a suffix forming the past tense and past participle of weak verbs. In this adjectival form, it indicates a state resulting from the action of the verb.