'malleolus' originates from Latin, specifically the word 'malleolus', a diminutive of 'malleus', where 'malleus' meant 'hammer'.

'malleolus' was used in Late/Medieval Latin as 'malleolus' (meaning 'little hammer') and later adopted into New Latin anatomical usage and then into English as the anatomical term 'malleolus'.

Initially, it meant 'little hammer' (a diminutive of 'hammer'), but over time it came to denote the bony prominence at the ankle known in modern anatomy as the 'malleolus'.