malleable

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English malliable, also malleable,^[2][3] borrowed from Medieval Latin malleābilis (“capable of being hammered”),^{[4][5][6][3][7]} from malleō (“to hammer”), from malleus (“hammer”).^[5][6][8][9] The OED records the Latin adjective in British sources from 1267, and in figurative use from before 1275.^[4] Etymonline, Barnhart, the Middle English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary also give an Old French source, malleable;^[5][3][2][6] the revised OED derives the word from the Latin adjective alone, noting that the Trésor de la langue française records malléable only from 1500, though Old Occitan malleable is attested from the 14th century.^[4] Etymonline traces malleus to Proto-Indo-European *mele- (“to crush, grind”),^[5][6] and Hoad and Merriam-Webster relate the word to maul and mallet.^[8][7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of metal, able to be shaped by hammering without breaking: about 1395, in Chaucer's Canon's Yeoman's Tale, where the alchemist promises to make quicksilver into silver as good as any and malliable.^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a term of metalworking and alchemy, used by Chaucer and Lydgate.^[2] Barnhart dates the spelling malleable to 1413.^[3] In 1665 it was applied once to stone that could be dressed with a hammer.^[4] The figurative sense "capable of being shaped or adapted, pliable" is recorded from 1612,^[4][3] and Etymonline dates its use of people open to outside influence to the 1610s.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as able to be spread by beating, a quality gold has above all metals.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – of metal, able to be shaped by hammering.^[4][2][3]
• 1413 – the spelling malleable.^[3]
• 1612 – figuratively, adaptable, pliable.^[4][3]
• 1665 – of stone, able to be dressed with a hammer.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a metal, able to be hammered, pressed or rolled into shape without breaking; compare ductile: Copper is malleable enough to be beaten into thin sheets.^[7][11][4]
2. Easily shaped, changed or influenced; adaptable, pliable or impressionable: a malleable young apprentice.^[7][11][4]

Word family

• malleability
• malleably
• malleablize
• nonmalleable
• unmalleable
• malleable iron

Related words

• malleate
• mallet
• maul
• malleus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins