entry
malleable
/ˈmæliəbəl/Capable of being shaped by hammering
From Latin malleus (hammer).
from Proto-Indo-European *mal-ni- (“crushing”), an extended variant of *melh₂- (“crush, grind”).
from Latin malleus "hammer" (from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind"). Figurative sense, of persons, "capable of being...
from Latin malleāre (“to hammer”)
from Medieval Latin malleabilis
+1 more sourcefrom Old French malleable and directly
+1 more sourceWord Ancestry
from Proto-Indo-European *mal-ni- (“crushing”), an extended variant of *melh₂- (“crush, grind”).
from Latin malleus "hammer" (from PIE root *mele- "to crush, grind"). Figurative sense, of persons, "capable of being...
from Latin malleāre (“to hammer”)
from Medieval Latin malleabilis
+1 more sourcefrom Old French malleable and directly
+1 more sourceA blacksmith’s world is full of words that feel like they’ve been beaten flat on the anvil, and this one is no exception. Latin had malleus, “hammer,” and that gave birth to malleāre, “to hammer,” which then produced the polite-sounding adjective malleābilis—basically, “fit for the forge.” By the late 1300s English had borrowed it, and the word carried the smell of hot iron long before anyone used it for personalities. That jump to human behavior showed up in the 1610s, when writers began using it for people who could be shaped by influence, the same mental move that makes ductile and pliable feel like cousins. If mallet is the blunt little hammer you can hold in your hand, malleable is the idea that something—or someone—can take a few careful blows and come away changed.
The Story
A blacksmith’s world is full of words that feel like they’ve been beaten flat on the anvil, and this one is no exception. Latin had malleus, “hammer,” and that gave birth to malleāre, “to hammer,” which then produced the polite-sounding adjective malleābilis—basically, “fit for the forge.” By the late 1300s English had borrowed it, and the word carried the smell of hot iron long before anyone used it for personalities. That jump to human behavior showed up in the 1610s, when writers began using it for people who could be shaped by influence, the same mental move that makes ductile and pliable feel like cousins. If mallet is the blunt little hammer you can hold in your hand, malleable is the idea that something—or someone—can take a few careful blows and come away changed.
Kin & Kindred
From 'malleus'·hammer
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia