Uncertain. The term is sometimes connected withProto-Indo-European*meh₃-(“to exert”), though De Vaan reconstructs the Proto-Indo-European root as*melos(“trouble, obstacle”) instead.[1]
estmōlēs nātīva locō rēs nōmina fēcit: appellant Saxum; pars bona montis eā est. huic Remus īnstiterat frūstrā, quō tempore frātrī prīma Palātīnae signa dedistis avēs.
There is aridge, that which gave natural names to the place: they call it the Rock; it forms a good part of the [Aventine] Hill. To this [place] Remus had uselessly embarked, at which time you, birds of the Palatine, gave foremost omens to his brother, [Romulus]. (SeeAventine Hill.)
^De Vaan, Michiel (2008), “mōlēs”, inEtymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill,→ISBN,page386
“moles”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“moles”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
"moles", in Charles du Fresne du Cange,Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
moles inRamminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)),Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
