† molairn.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin molaria, variant (in two manuscripts and the first two printed editions) of post-classical Latin malaria (plural) part of the skeleton of a horse, probably the femurs or the heads of the femurs (only in Vegetius Digestorum Artis Mulomedicinae Libri), of uncertain origin; perhaps compare ancient Greek μῆλον apple, used of rounded protuberances such as the tonsils, and therefore perhaps applicable to the rounded heads of the femurs.The form in mol- is probably after classical Latin molāris belonging to a mill (see molar n. and adj.¹), perhaps because the action of the heads of the femurs in the acetabula of the pelvis was thought of as a grinding one. Topsell (1607), translating the word from its occurrence in K. Gesner De Quadrupedibus (1551) 447, renders it ‘grinding bones’. Only attested in plural.