malleo-, malle-

1. The outermost of the three small bones (malleus, incus, and stapes) in the ear of mammals, that transmits the vibrations of the tympanum to the incus or anvil.
2. The largest of the three auditory ossicles, resembling a club rather than a hammer; it is regarded as having a head, below which is the neck, and from this diverge the handle or manubrium, and the slender, anterior process; from the base of the manubrium the short lateral process arises. The manubrium and lateral process are firmly attached to the tympanic membrane, and the head articulates with a saddle-shaped surface on the body of the incus [a small bone, shaped like an anvil, found in the middle ear of mammals between the malleus and the stapes bones]. Also called a \"hammer\".

1. To beat, batter, or tear at a person or animal: "The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors Wednesday (December 26, 2007) as investigators tried to determine how a tiger escaped from its enclosue and attacked three visitors, killing one man and mauling another two. Last year, Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, reached through her cage's bars and mauled a keeper by ripping the flesh off the zookeeper's arm just before Christmas of 2006."
2. To handle somebody or something too roughly or clumsily.
3. To split wood using a large heavy hammer and a wedge.
4. A large heavy hammer, usually with a wooden head, that is used for driving in piles, stakes, or wedges.
5. A heavy hammer that has one side of the head shaped like a wedge, making it suitable for splitting logs or wood.
6. Etymology: from about 1240, meallen, "strike with a heavy weapon"; from Middle English mealle (c.1240), "mace, wooden club, heavy hammer"; from Old French mail "mallet". The meaning "damage seriously, shatter, mangle" is first recorded in 1692.

Relating to the tympanic membrane and the malleus.