malleolus

mallĕŏlus, i, m. dim. [malleus], a small hammer or mallet.

I.

Lit., Cels. 8, 3, 29; Vulg. Jud. 4, 21:

verba mea sunt quasi malleus conterens petram,

id. Jer. 23, 29.—

II.

Transf.

A.

A hammershaped slip, a mallet-shoot for planting:

malleolus novellus est palmes, innatus prioris anni flagello, cognominatusque a similitudine rei, quod in ea parte, quae deciditur, ex vetere sarmento prominens utrinque, malleoli speciem praebet,

Col. 3, 6, 3; cf. Plin. 17, 21, 35, § 156:

malleolos pangere,

to set in, plant, Col. 3, 3, 12; so,

deponere,

id. ib.:

conserere,

id. 3, 14, 2:

demergere,

id. 3, 18, 2:

serere sulco, vel scrobe,

Plin. 17, 22, 35, § 169.—

B.

In milit. lang., a kind of fire-dart, Amm. 23, 4, 14; cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 135 Müll.:

malleoli, manipuli spartei pice contecti, qui incensi aut in muros aut in testudines jaciuntur,

Non. 556, 11 sq.: partim malleolos, partim fasces sarmentorum incensos supra vallum, etc., Sisenn. ap. Non. 556, 13:

malleolos et faces ad inflammandam urbem comparare,

Cic. Cat. 1, 13, 32; cf. id. Mil. 24, 64: faces taedamque et malleolos stupae illitos pice parari jubet, Liv 42, 64, 3; cf. id. 38, 6, 2. —

C.

The tongue of a shoe-buckle:

malleoli ossei vel aerei,

Isid. 19, 34, 10.