diente

Forms

diente m (plural dientes)^[1] Old Spanish also had the apocopated form dient.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish diente, inherited from Latin dēns (“tooth”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word is continued all over the Romance area: Portuguese dente, Galician dente, Catalan dent, French dent, Italian dente and Romanian dinte.^[6][7] In French and Occitan the word became feminine, while Picard, Walloon and Lorrain kept the old masculine.^[6]

The Latin word goes back to *dents and Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”).^[8][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), Sanskrit दत् (dát) and Old English tōþ, the source of English “tooth”.^[1][8] Covarrubias in 1611 derived the Latin word from edō (“to eat”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), in the old phrase a dientes “face down”: the Cid's vassal falls to the ground and las yerbas del campo a dientes las tomó “took the grass of the field in his teeth”.^[10][3] The locution matches Old French a denz and survives also in the Libro de Alexandre.^[3] Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) uses the word in its plain sense of a tooth, here a crab's.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Already in Alfonso X's Astronomy (1277) diente named a point or projection on an instrument, the sense that gives the teeth of a saw, a comb or a gearwheel.^[11][5] The special sense diente de ajo “clove of garlic” is first found in Nebrija.^[3][4][12] In the Quijote Cervantes uses the phrases entre dientes “muttering” and dar diente con diente “to have one's teeth chatter”.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades defined the tooth as a small, hard, white bone fixed in the jaw, and listed diente de león “dandelion”, named for its toothed leaves.^[14] In 1884 the Academy added the builders' sense of a toothing stone left projecting from a wall, and the phrase de dientes afuera “insincerely”.^[15][16] In Latin America de buen diente describes a hearty eater, and de los dientes para afuera a hypocrite (Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Chile).^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the phrase a dientes.^[3][4][10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses diente for a tooth.^[11]
• 1277 – the Alfonsine astronomical treatises use it for a projecting point.^[11]
• 1495 – Nebrija records diente de ajo “clove of garlic”.^[4][3]
• 1516 – the first record in the Americas, at Darién: “36 small gold teeth” on an Indian spear.^[18]
• 1581 – dentadura “set of teeth” is first recorded.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes incisors, canines and molars.^[9]
• 1832 – dentista “dentist” is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. tooth: each of the hard pieces set in the jaws of people and many animals, used to bite and chew or for defence: Se le cayó un diente de leche.^[5][1][19]
2. (zoology) Each of the points beside the notches in the beak of certain birds.^[5][19]
3. (architecture) A toothing stone: each of the stones or bricks left projecting from a wall to bond with a later extension; the same as adaraja.^[5][19]
4. Each of the points or projections of a tool or other object, such as a saw, a comb or a gearwheel (cog): diente de sierra.^[5][1]
5. Each of the small points left on the edge of a stamp or a perforated document when it is torn off.^[5]
6. clove (of garlic): diente de ajo.^[1][5]
7. (printing) A mark left on a sheet when the pages of the two sides do not register.^[5]

Word family

• dentado
• dentadura
• dental
• dentera
• dentista
• dentón
• dentudo
• desdentar
• dientón
• desdentado

Related words

• odontología
• Latin dēns
• Portuguese dente

Usage notes

Set phrases include hablar entre dientes “to mutter”, diente de león “dandelion” and de dientes afuera “insincerely”.^[13][14][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 192
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 491
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. diente
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. diente
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2556
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2185
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 672
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. diente
11. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. diente
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 335
13. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 416
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 269
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 384
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1116
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. diente
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. diente
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. diente