English

Section of an ear showing location of the malleus

The malleus of a rotifer of the species Brachionus urceolaris (fig. c-d).

Noun

malleus ‎(plural mallei)

1. (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.

2. (ichthyology) The tripus (ossicle in cypriniform fishes).
3. (zoology) One of the paired calcareous structures within the mastax of rotifers.
   • 1884, Hudson, C.T., Memoirs: An Attempt to re-classify the Rotifers in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science 1884 s2-24, 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

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: 1113194219, 9781113194213, page 174

Latin

malleus (a mallet)

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 usual reflex млѣти ‎(mlěti).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈmal.le.us/

Noun

malleus m ‎(genitive malleī); second declension

1. 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 […]

2. 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.

3. (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 […]

Inflection

Second declension.

Synonyms

• martellus (Late Latin)

Related terms

• malleātor
• malleātus
• malleō

Derived terms

• malleolus

Descendants

References

• 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, 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