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Etymology and origin of the English word dent

Pronunciation

dent1 hollow made by a blow

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1300 before 1300, a fragment of popular science
Inherited from
Old English dynt via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *duntiz

Etymology

The hollow made by a blow is inherited from Middle English dent (“blow, stroke”), a variant of dint,[2][3][4][5][6] inherited from Old English dynt (“a stroke, blow; the mark of a blow”),[2][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *duntiz,[3][9] which is also the source of Old Norse dyntr (“blow, kick”); the Germanic word is of disputed further origin.[3][9] The Middle English word had the forms dint, dunt, dent and dont.[10] The sense "hollow, indentation" (1565) was apparently influenced by indent.[2][3][11][12] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford take that sense from the verb, which they regard as probably short for indent;[13][4] Merriam-Webster derives the verb from Middle English denten, an alteration of dinten.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stroke or clap of thunder: before 1300; a blow, especially with a weapon, from about 1325, in Coer de Lyon.[2] Barnhart finds the sense "stroke, blow" probably about 1225, in King Horn,[14] and Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English dent meant a blow dealt in fighting, and also the dealing of blows, the vigorous use of a sword (before 1400–1600);[2] Barnhart notes a wound made by a blow from 1373.[14] Chaucer's "thonder dent" is a clap of thunder,[15] a sense the OED records from before 1300 to 1430 and which survived in East Anglian dialect, where a dent was a clap of thunder and, figuratively, the moment of greatest danger.[15][4] The modern meaning, a hollow or impression in a surface such as a blow makes, is recorded from 1565, in John Jewel's translation of St Ambrose,[2][14][3] and came to replace the senses of the blow itself, which the OED marks as obsolete after about 1600.[2] The verb, to make a dent in, is recorded from before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,[2] and Barnhart finds it implied in dentyng about 1395.[14] The figurative senses are modern: the verb, to weaken or damage, from 1931 in the Daily Express,[2] and the noun, a reducing effect made on something, from 1942.[2] In Yorkshire, Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Gloucestershire dent was a dialect word for an indentation.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – a stroke or blow, probably, in King Horn.[14]
  • before 1300 – a stroke or clap of thunder (obsolete by 1430).[2]
  • c. 1325 – a blow, especially with a weapon (obsolete by 1606).[2]
  • before 1398 – verb, to make a dent in.[2]
  • 1565 – a hollow or impression in a surface made by a blow.[2][14]
  • 1853 – dent corn, in the United States.[2]
  • 1931 – verb, figurative: to weaken or damage.[2]
  • 1942 – noun, figurative: a significant, often reducing, effect.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hollow or depression in a surface, made by a blow or by pressure: There was a dent in the van's bonnet.[16][6][2]
  2. A noticeable effect, especially one that reduces something: The repairs made a dent in their savings.[16][6][2]
  3. Short for dent corn.[6][2]
  4. (now dialectal) A stroke or blow, especially with a weapon.[6][2][4]

Verb

  1. To make a dent in: She dented the kettle when she dropped it.[16][6][2]
  2. To have a damaging or weakening effect on: The scandal dented the minister's reputation.[6][2]
  3. To become dented.[16][6][2]

Word family

  • dent corn

dent2 tooth, notch

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1552 Huloet
Borrowed from
Middle French dent
Ultimate origin
Latin dēns
Etymology tree of dent2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin dens
English dent
French dent
Italian dente
From the same root · dent2
Latin bidens ← dens
Latin dentalis ← dens
Latin dentatus ← dens

Etymology

The tooth or notch is borrowed from Middle French dent (“tooth”),[6][17][2][4] inherited from Latin dēns (“tooth”).[6][17][18] The OED suggests that its first sense, an indentation in an edge, may have begun as an extension of the hollow made by a blow, under the influence of the French word or of indent.[2] Merriam-Webster and Partridge relate it to tooth.[6][19]

Earliest recorded meaning

An indentation in the edge of something, or the projections between such notches: 1552, in Huloet's Abcedarium.[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1545–55.[17]

Semantic evolution

The OED marks the sense "notch in an edge" obsolete after 1700,[2] while the Shorter Oxford keeps it in needlework, for a pointed or square design cut as a decorative edging to a hem.[4] From the 18th century the word was used for a tooth in various crafts: a burnishing tool used by gilders (1702), one of the thin strips forming the reed of a loom (1831), the wire staple of a card for combing fibres, and a tooth of a gear wheel or of the works of a lock.[2][6]

Timeline

  • 1552 – a notch in the edge of something (obsolete by 1700).[2]
  • 1702 – a burnishing tool used by gilders.[2]
  • 1831 – weaving: one of the strips forming the reed of a loom.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An indentation or notch.[6][4]
  2. A tooth, as of a gear wheel, a card for combing fibres or the works of a lock.[6][2]
  3. (weaving) One of the thin wires or strips that make up the reed of a loom, or the space between two of them.[6][2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  11. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  15. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  19. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul

Related etymologies

  • thereafter · also from Old English
  • headache · also from Old English
  • ankle · also from Old English
  • township · also from Old English
  • lame · also from Old English
  • hollow · also from Old English
  • drake · also from Old English
  • acre · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Dent.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/dent. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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