A picture to hold: a strip of metal lying under a hammer. Hit it, and it does not crack or fly apart. It spreads, and it keeps whatever shape the hammer leaves behind. Malleable names that behaviour — the thing gives way under pressure, and then stays that way. Every other use of the word puts something else under the hammer: a person, an opinion, a plan.
From the word’s history
From Latin malleus, a hammer, and malleare, to hammer, reaching English through Middle French malleable. The hammer is literally inside the word, which is why the shaping picture fits so well.
這個字來自拉丁文 malleus（鎚子）和 malleāre（鎚打），經由中古法文 malléable 進入英文。鎚子就藏在字裡面，所以「被打出形狀」這個畫面不是後來想出來的比喻，而是字本身帶著的。
Wiktionary entry for malleable, supplied in this batch's evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:255781639)
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