Maybe I am asking a stupid question, but "malleus" in the phrase "Ordo Malleus " is not a kind of hammer, right?  And what is it`s etyma? Anyone knows?  Thanks.

Running Malleus through an online translator, it comes up with "to prefer" which I can't see is right.

Also, bear in mind I'm no linguist, nor do I or have I ever studied Latin.

I've always just taken it to mean "Evil", from the French "Mal".

Just my 2 cents. If anyone has a better explanation, I'd love to hear it! :)

I think I remember reading somewhere that it translates to "Order of the Hammer." I can't actually recall where I read that, so don't call me on that.

Malleus is Latin for hammer. It's where the word mallet comes from.

Cheers

Sparrow

Is it where the word malleable comes from? So if something is malleable then it's literally mallet-able?

Hellebore

Malleus means Hammer (as in the Malleus, Incus and Stapes, or the Malleus Maleficarum)

and yes, it's the entymological root of Malleable ("that which can be hammered")

A malleus is one of the three ossicles in the inner ear.  (Interestingly, malleolus is also a general term for any bony prominence (such as those on the ankle bone called malleoli).

It does indeed translate most closely from Latin into English as 'hammer'.

I guess (although my cpies of Realms of Chaos and The Lost and the Damned have gone walkies) they were originally named as the 'Emperor's Hammer' against the heretics/xenos/daemons/etc., or some such reason.

Etymology is fun.

Hellebore

Yep, it means "hammer."  And yes, it's related to "malleable," something which can be hammered into a different shape.  You put the iron in the forge until it's hot enough to be malleable, and then you hammer it, see?

The reason it's used in this context is as a reference to the Malleus Maleficarum, the "Hexenhammer" or "Hammer Against Witches," a 15th century book on detecting and killing witches.  It included many helpful hints, like "women are evil and tempt men's souls" and "weighs the same as a duck."  So there's a direct Inquisitorial connection there.

If you search for it, you'll find the full text in English of the Malleus Maleficarum online. It's good for ideas. And tremendously entertaining.

Another good historical source for ideas might also be anything by Cotton Mather and the records of the Salem Witch Trials, the written records of which (witness testimonies, court documents etc.) are also all online.

 Brother Domis- Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?

Didn't know the bit about wiches, v. interesting. The middle ages were just ace, weren't they?

Luddite said:

What more to say than, "Yup."

Kage

In Spanish and French "mal" means BAD. In Latin, malleus is hammer.  So...the Ordo Malleus is the holy hammer that smites bad things from the warp

Makes sense to me.

So when Eisenhorn cries out "I charge thee malleus, and hereby deliver thy sentence" what he's actually saying is "I charge you for that hammer, and here is your bill" ???

Seriously, it probably comes from the Maleficium and means something like 'I come against thee... (in the name of God...)'

So malleus probably means something like 'that which comes against'.

Or is it just some cold shit to say before you pop a cap in a heretek's ass?

Karmatech said:

Actually, those above were correct.  Malleus means Hammer or Mallet and the Ordo malleous was more then likely named as a bow to the Hexenhammer.  So, yes, when Eissenhorn cried out "I charge thee malleus, and hereby deliver thy sentence" he indeed was inferring that the man was, in some form, a hammer... or possibly a tool used to fell sacrificial animals.  In short, Eisenhorn might not be all that good with High Gothic... or at last his author isn't ;-)

Abnette probably got Malleus mixed up with Malus which dose mean evil, wicked, injurious, destructive, mischievous, hurtful and is the root from which words such as malicious and malignant have come.

Definition of Malleus

Definition of Malus

More Latin then you can shake a stick at.

Edit:

Actualy, come to think of it, I think more then just Abnette got a bit confused on the meaning of malleus.  I remember when I first introduced my players to threat ratings and they looked at me oddly.

"So, what your telling us is a Daemonhost is actually, in the eyes of the Inquisition, a Deadly Hammer?"

"Um... apparently... yes."

"And... all Deamons are classified as... hammers?"

"Er... they come from the warp and it... mals things?"

"'Mals' isn't even a word!"

Or it could just be that High Gothic is not Classical nor Medieval Latin, and Maleus means 'bad / evil' in High Gothic. The use of 'faux latin' has been consistant through both 40K and WFRP publications while still not actauly using proper latin cases, or declenstions so I really think its just suposed to be evocative of the whole 'gothic' feel and not an actual attemp at portraying Latin. Besides I always used to think the Refrences to High and low Gothic were more a nod to Germanic tongues than Roman and also to the whole Warhammer HRE type of leanings.