An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/malmen
malmen, zermalmen, vb., ‘to crush to pieces, grind,’ ModHG. only, but apparently, on account of the infrequency of the m-suffix, far older. The non-occurrence of OHG. *mâlmôn and MidHG. *malmen is probably only an accident; in MidHG. zermaln and zermüln, ‘to grind,’ are used. The suffix m is seen in the nouns, Goth. malma, m., ‘sand,’ and OSax., OHG., and MidHG. mëlm,. m., ‘dust’; to these are allied Müll and Gemüll, MidHG. gemülle, OHG. gimulli, ‘dust, mould’ For the root mal see under mahlen.