▪ I. † ˈmormal Obs.
Forms: 4–7 mormal, 5, 7 morimal, mormale, 5–7 mormall(e, 6 marmoll(e, mortmale, mermole, 6–7 marmole, 7 marmall, mortmal.
[a. OF. mortmal (= med.L. mortuum malum), f. mort dead + mal evil. Cf. F. mal de mort, used Hist. to render the OF. word.]
1. An inflamed sore, esp. on the leg.
Prob. used vaguely; the description in quot. 1543 and its context seems to refer to ecthyma or impetigo.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 386 Greet harm was it as it thoughte me That on his shyne a mormal hadde he. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 178 Þe blood-letyng of þis veyne is good..for cancrena þat ben in þe hipis & for a mormal. c 1400 Brut (E.E.T.S.) 230/3 Also ij men haue bene helede þere of þe morimal. c 1483 Caxton Dialogues 41/40 He can hele and cure..mormale. a 1518 Skelton Magnyf. 1906 Some with the marmoll to halte I them make. 1533 More Answ. Poysoned Bk. Wks. 1088/1 To heale the foule marmole of theyr scabbed shynnes. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. v. iii. 164 Of the deed euyll, or mortmale. The deed euyl..is a maligne, fylthy, and corrupt scabbe, which begynneth for y⊇ most part in y⊇ armes, thyghes, & legges, & chefly in the legges it causeth crusty pustules, ful of fylthy matter. 1579 Langham Gard. Health (1633) 41 For Festers, Mermoles, sores of the yard, and all other sores, take Ash [etc.]. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 588 Such morimals or sores as scorne ordinary cures & be full of suppuration. |
| fig. 14.. Seven Deadly Sins 109 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903) 247 ‘Luxiria’ ys a lyther mormale. 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 57 The festered & stinking cores of old marmoles & inueterate sores of the weale publike. |
2. ? Used for agnail 3.
| 1685 J. Cooke's Marrow Chirurg. i. xi. (ed. 4) 75 There are also little Marmoles, so called by some, which are little bits of the Skin that rise near to the Nails. |
▪ II. [mormal, a.
‘grievous, dangerous’ (Webster 1864) is app. a mistaken inference from prec. n.
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