# malleus
## English
### Etymology

From Latin malleus (“hammer, mallet”). Doublet of maul.

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /ˈmæl.i.əs/
* Rhymes: -æliəs

### Noun

malleus (plural mallei)
* (anatomy) The small hammer-shaped bone of the middle ear.
    A fracture of the malleus handle is a rare traumatic middle ear lesion.
** 2010, Elaine N. Marieb, Katja Hoehn, Human Anatomy & Physiology, 8th edition, page 576:The tympanic cavity is spanned by the three smallest bones in the body: the auditory ossicles […] These bones, named for their shape, are the malleus (malʹe-us; "hammer"); the incus (ingʹkus; "anvil"); and the stapes (staʹpēz; "stirrup"). The "handle" of the malleus is secured to the eardrum, and the base of the stapes fits into the oval window.
* (ichthyology) The tripus (ossicle in cypriniform fishes).
* (zoology) One of the paired calcareous structures within the mastax of rotifers.
** 1884, “Memoirs: An Attempt to re-classify the Rotifers”, in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 1884 s2-24, C.T.: Hudson, pages 335-356:[…] in the typical mastax of a Brachionus there are two hammer-like bodies (mallei), which work on a kind of split anvil (incus); […] each malleus consists of an upper part or head (uncus) and a lower or handle (manubrium);

#### Synonyms

* (bone of the middle ear): hammer
* (tripus): malleus Weberi, tripus

#### Hypernyms

* (bone of the middle ear): auditory ossicle, auditory bone, otic bone, ossicle

#### Derived terms

* malleal
* mallear
* malleable

#### Translations
### References

* The Century Dictionary Online
* Dictionary of Ichthyology, Brian W. Coad and Don E. McAllister
* A Dictionary of Scientific Terms, Henderson I. F., Henderson W. D., BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009, →ISBN, →ISBN, page 174

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *melh₂-no-, from *melh₂- (“to grind, crush”), whence also molō (“I grind”). Compare similar semantic development from the same Proto-Indo-European root in Old Church Slavonic млатъ (mlatŭ, “hammer”), beside the verb млѣти (mlěti, “grind”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈmal.le.us/, [ˈmälːʲeʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈmal.le.us/, [ˈmälːeus]

### Noun

malleus m (genitive malleī); second declension
* hammer, mallet
** 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.623–625: […] haud aliter quam cum spectante iuvenca lactentis vituli dextra libratus ab aure tempora discussit claro cava malleus ictu. […] just as when the young suckling calf spies by its right ear the danger poised to crash its resounding hammer blow.
** 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Iudicum.5.26:sinistram manum misit ad clavum et dexteram ad fabrorum malleos […] She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer […]
* a disease of animals
** c. 260 CE, Quintus Gargilius Martialis, P. Vegeti Renati Digestorum artis mulomedicinae 1.31:Quod si febris interna fuerit, non facile animal dormiet, et cotidie deterior fiet, interdum furunculos in dorso vel in lateribus habebit: scias eum a morbo, de quo superius disputatum est, maleo teneri.
* (New Latin) the malleus, a small bone in the middle ear
** 1794, Gulielmo Rowley, Schola Medicinæ Universalis Nova, pars prior, page ix
    Chorda tympani—Oſſicula quatuor auditus, 267—Malleus—Incus—Oſſiculum ſubrotundum ovale—Stapes […]Chorda tympani—four auditory ossicles, 267—malleus—incus—subrotund oval ossicle—stapes […]

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Synonyms

* martellus (Medieval Latin)

#### Derived terms

* malleābilis
* malleō
* malleolus

#### Descendants

* Albanian: maj
* Aromanian: malj, maljiu
* Basque: mailu
* Catalan: mall
* Old French: mail
** French: mail
** → English: maul
* Italian: maglio
* Portuguese: malho
* Galician: mallo
* Romanian: mai
* Romansch: magl
* Sardinian:
    Logudorese: mazu, màggiu, màgiu, maxu
    Campidanese: mallu, màgliu
* Sicilian: magghiu
* Spanish: mallo
* Walloon: maye
Borrowings:
* English: malleus
* Serbo-Croatian: mȃlj / ма̑љ

### References

* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “malleus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 360

### Further reading

* “malleus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “malleus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "malleus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* “malleus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “malleus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin