The story
- Proto-Indo-European · derived from*mal-ni-“crushing”
- Latin · derived frommalleāre“to hammer”
- Late Latin · derived frommalleābilis
- Middle French · derived frommalléable
- English todaymalleable
From Middle French malléable, borrowed from Late Latin malleābilis, derived from Latin malleāre (“to hammer”), from malleus (“hammer”), from Proto-Indo-European *mal-ni- (“crushing”), an extended variant of *melh₂- (“crush, grind”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.