mollestra

Unknown. Possibly related to Ancient Greek μηλωτή (mēlōtḗ, “sheepskin”). Derived by the medieval lexicographer Huguccio of Pisa from molliō. For a formation such as molleō (“to be soft”) +‎ -tra (instrumental suffix), which would be unusual, compare mulctra, mōnstrum, capistrum.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [mɔlˈlɛs.tra]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [molˈlɛs.t̪ra]

mollestra f (genitive mollestrae); first declension (rare)

1. A sheep's felt for wiping helmets
   • 1839 [8th century CE], Paulus Diaconus, edited by Karl Otfried Müller, Excerpta ex libris Pompeii Festi De significatione verborum, page 135, line 3:

     Mollestras dicebant pelles ovillas, quibus galeas extergebant.

     They gave the name "mollestras" to sheepskins with which they wiped helmets.

   • after 1150, Huguccio of Pisa, Derivationes M 129:^[1]

     Item a mollio hec mollestra -e, pellis ovina, quia mollis sit, et hic et hec mollis -e, quia vigorem sexus enervati corporis dedecoret et quasi mulier emolliatur, et comparatur

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

First-declension noun.

• “mollestra”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mollestra”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.