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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

maxilla.

jaw (viewed externally), lower part of the face; jaws/jaw-bones (usu. pl.);

7 characters3 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[maːkˈsɪl.la]Classical-Latin[makˈsil.la]
  1. diminutive of māla: the jaw, jawbone, bone of the upper jaw

    declension-1
  2. diminutive of māla: the lower part of the face, the jaws

    declension-1
Where this word comes from

Diminutive of māla (“the cheekbone, jaw”), from its reconstructed Proto-Italic form *smakslā and the diminutive suffix *-elos via the following sequence of regular sound changes: *-kslelā > *-ksl̥lā > *-ksillā. Compare the formation of the following diminutives: āla–āxilla, ōlla–auxilla, paulus–pauxillus, pālus–pāxillus, vēlum–vēxillum. An alternative etymology of māla, supported by Thurneysen and Leumann, reconstructs its original form as *mandslā, from the root of mandō (“to chew”); if this is correct, the -x- in the diminutive must have instead been introduced by analogy to āxilla. Synchronically, māxilla can be viewed as ending in the Latin diminutive suffix -illus.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.