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dent

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Pronunciation

dent1 hollow made by a blow

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

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