An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/malmen

by Friedrich Kluge

malmen, zermalmen, verb, ‘to crush to pieces, grind,’ Modern High German only, but apparently, on account of the infrequency of the m-suffix, far older. The non-occurrence of Old High German *mâlmôn and Middle High German *malmen is probably only an accident; in Middle High German zermaln and zermüln, ‘to grind,’ are used. The suffix m is seen in the nouns, Gothic malma, masculine, ‘sand,’ and Old Saxon, Old High German, and Middle High German mëlm,. masculine, ‘dust’; to these are allied Müll and Gemüll, Middle High German gemülle, Old High German gimulli, ‘dust, mould’ For the root mal see under mahlen.