# μασχάλη
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

The formation may be compared with that of ἀγκάλη (ankálē, “bent arm”), but further details are unclear. According to Beekes, it is undoubtedly a Pre-Greek word.
Meanwhile Douglas Q. Adams has presented a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱsleh₂, via *h₂eḱs- (“axis, axle”), ultimately from the root *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), and source to Latin āla (“wing, armpit”), axilla (“little wing, armpit”) as well as Proto-Germanic *ahslō (“shoulder”). He finds that a Proto-Hellenic *aksalā could have given *askhalā by simple metathesis, while the initial m- could be either the product of a misdivision of the definite article plus noun (e. g. in the accusative singular *tām aksalā as well as in the respective genitive and dative dual, and genitive plural forms) or a contamination with the semantically similar μάλη (málē, “armpit”) and μαζός (mazós, “breast”).
Immanuel Löw explains it as a Semitic borrowing, related to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic מַתְחֲלָא (maṯḥălā, “calyx surrounding the date in its early state, or spathe of a date-palm”), possibly related to Arabic حُثَالَة (ḥuṯāla, “husks of grain or of dates, refuse of any crop”), both of uncertain internal relations.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /mas.kʰá.lɛː/ → /masˈxa.li/ → /masˈxa.li/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /mas.kʰá.lɛː/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /masˈkʰa.le̝/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /masˈxa.li/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /masˈxa.li/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /masˈxa.li/

### Noun

μᾰσχᾰ́λη • (măskhắlē) f (genitive μᾰσχᾰ́λης); first declension
* (anatomy) armpit, axilla
    Synonym: μάλη (málē)
* (botany) axil, hollow at the base of a shoot
* branch, young palm twig
* (geography) bay, gulf
* part of the prow of a ship, to which the foresail is fastened

#### Derived terms

* ἀμφιμάσχαλος (amphimáskhalos)
* μασχαλιαία (maskhaliaía)
* μασχαλίζω (maskhalízō)
* μασχάλιον (maskhálion)
* μασχαλίς (maskhalís)
* μασχαλίσματα (maskhalísmata)
* μασχαλισμός (maskhalismós)
* μασχαλιστήρ (maskhalistḗr)
* τρᾰγομᾰ́σχᾰλος (trăgomắskhălos)

#### Descendants

* Greek: μασχάλη (mascháli)

### Further reading

* “μασχάλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* μασχάλη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* “μασχάλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* Adams, Douglas Q (1984) “The Etymology of Greek μασχάλη ‘Armpit’ with Notes on μάλη”, in Glotta, volume 62, page 65 seqq.
* Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
* Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, page 334
* “mtḥl”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–

## Greek
### Alternative forms

* μασκάλη (maskáli), αμασκάλη (amaskáli), αμασχάλη (amascháli)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /maˈsxali/
* Hyphenation: μα‧σχά‧λη

### Noun

μασχάλη • (mascháli) f (plural μασχάλες)
* armpit, axilla

#### Declension
### Further reading

* μασχάλη on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia $^{el}$