▪ I. ‖ mola1
(ˈməʊlə)
[L. mola (1) millstone; (2) salt cake; (3) a false conception (after Gr. µύλη). Senses 2 and 3 below are mod.Latin.]
1. A fleshy mass occurring in the womb; a false conception; = mole n.5 Also transf. and fig.
| 1601 Holland Pliny I. 163 A false conception called Mola, i. a moone calfe. 1636 James Iter Lanc. (Chetham Soc.) 9, I hope no sisters did of molaes dye. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. vi. 93 Many Mola's and false conceptions there are of Mandrakes. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, cccxlix, The Age (it seemes) after soe great a Birth In Treason, as his owne, broke in the Cell; Slipt her Rebellions, like rude Molaes forth. 1671 Grew Anat. Plants iv. App. §1 These Thorns [have their origin], from the outer, and less fecund Part; and so produceth no Leaves, but is, as it were, the Mola of a Bud. 1753 N. Torriano Midwifry 39 Mola's and false Conceptions. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 196 The human mola sometimes attains considerable developement without either brain or spinal cord. |
† 2. A fish; = mole n.6 1, molebut.
The Latin word is in Carpentier's additions to Du Cange, with a quotation from an anonymous MS. of the 16th c.; the passage is in Rondelet De Pisc. Mar. (1554) 425: see molebut.
| 1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Mola, a Fish found in the Adriatick Sea. |
3. Ent. The grinding surface of the broad basal projection of the mandible of certain insects.
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. 437 These mandibles..are furnished with..miniature mill-stones to grind it [i.e. food]. The part here alluded to I call the Mola. |
▪ II. mola2
(ˈməʊlə)
[Native name.]
A square of brightly coloured, appliquéd cloth worn as a blouse by Cuna Indian women of the San Blas Islands, Panama. Also attrib.
| 1941 Nat. Geogr. Mag. Feb. 217 With the skirt is worn a short-sleeved waist called a mola. The mola is of true Indian manufacture. 1964 I. Salem tr. M. & H. Larsen's Forests Panama viii. 99 These molas..are perhaps the only really interesting things produced by the Cuna. Layers of different-coloured materials are cut into various shapes and superimposed one on another to produce a very colourful raised design. Ibid., Some of these molas still depict the rather naïve, stylized animals portrayed on pre-Columbian pottery. 1966 J. M. Kelly Cuna i. 26 The ‘Mola’ tops had been introduced by the Spaniards who didn't like the women walking around with their breasts showing. 1972 Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 23 July 7/3 The women are known for their ‘molas’. A mola is a square of five layers of material, and each piece is cut to show the colors of the different layers underneath. 1973 M. Mackintosh King & Two Queens v. 79 ‘These are original Cuna Indian molas,’ said Rodger, ‘and the most modern things in this upper hall.’ 1974 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 10 July 18/5 Molas are worn by women and girls of the Cuna tribe. The rectangular panels, approximately 16 by 24 inches, are worn in matched sets on the front and back of the blouse atop wrap-around print skirts. |