μασχάλη

The formation may be compared with that of ἀγκάλη (ankálē, “bent arm”), but further details are unclear. According to Beekes, it is undoubtedly a Pre-Greek word.

Meanwhile Douglas Q. Adams has presented a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱsleh₂, via *h₂eḱs- (“axis, axle”), ultimately from the root *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), and source to Latin āla (“wing, armpit”), axilla (“little wing, armpit”) as well as Proto-Germanic *ahslō (“shoulder”). He finds that a Proto-Hellenic *aksalā could have given *askhalā by simple metathesis, while the initial m- could be either the product of a misdivision of the definite article plus noun (e. g. in the accusative singular *tām aksalā as well as in the respective genitive and dative dual, and genitive plural forms) or a contamination with the semantically similar μάλη (málē, “armpit”) and μαζός (mazós, “breast”).

Immanuel Löw explains it as a Semitic borrowing, related to Jewish Babylonian Aramaic מַתְחֲלָא (maṯḥălā, “calyx surrounding the date in its early state, or spathe of a date-palm”), possibly related to Arabic حُثَالَة (ḥuṯāla, “husks of grain or of dates, refuse of any crop”), both of uncertain internal relations.

μᾰσχᾰ́λη • (maskhálē) f (genitive μᾰσχᾰ́λης); first declension

1. (anatomy) armpit, axilla

   Synonym: μάλη (málē)

2. (botany) axil, hollow at the base of a shoot
3. branch, young palm twig
4. (geography) bay, gulf
5. part of the prow of a ship, to which the foresail is fastened

• Greek: μασχάλη (mascháli)

• “μασχάλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• μασχάλη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “μασχάλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Adams, Douglas Q (1984) “The Etymology of Greek μασχάλη ‘Armpit’ with Notes on μάλη”, in Glotta, volume 62, page 65 seqq.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• Löw, Immanuel (1924) Die Flora der Juden‎ (in German), volume 2, Wien und Leipzig: R. Löwit, page 334
• “mtḥl”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–

• μασκάλη (maskáli), αμασκάλη (amaskáli), αμασχάλη (amascháli)

• IPA^(key): /maˈsxali/
• Hyphenation: μα‧σχά‧λη

μασχάλη • (mascháli) f (plural μασχάλες)

1. armpit, axilla

• μασχάλη on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el