dente

Forms

dente m (plural dentes)^[1] Houaiss records dete in the 14th century and demte in the 15th beside dente.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dens (“tooth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese dente in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1]

The same Latin word is Galician dente, Spanish diente, Catalan dent, Occitan dent, French dent, Italian dente and Romanian dinte.^[5][1] Meyer-Lübke notes that French and Occitan made it feminine, while some northern French dialects kept the old masculine.^[5]

The Latin noun goes back to *dents, from *h₃dónts (“tooth”).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs it as *h₃d-nt- and lists the cognates Sanskrit दत् (dát), Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), Armenian ատամ (atam), Lithuanian dantìs, Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus) and Old High German zand.^[6][1] Only the Greek and Armenian forms, which begin with a vowel, show which laryngeal stood at the start of the word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to 1124, citing Machado.^[2] In Galician-Portuguese texts it is found from the 13th century: in the Cantigas de Santa Maria a man is split atro enos dentes “down to the teeth”, and another is healed so that nunca pois lle dolveron boca nen lingua nen dente “never again did his mouth, tongue or tooth hurt him”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word has always meant the tooth of a person or animal.^[2] From early on it also meant any tooth-like point.^[2] Barbosa in 1611 lists dentes queyxays “molars” and the saying tem dentes isto “this has teeth”, that is, it is very difficult.^[8] Morais in 1813 adds the cog of a wheel and the share-beam of a plough, dente do arado.^[9] Regional surveys in Portugal record it for the tines of a pitchfork and the teeth of a harrow.^[10]

Houaiss extends it to the pointed summit of a mountain, an ornamental block on top of a wall and the notches on a leaf's edge.^[2] The dente de alho is a clove of garlic.^[1] In Brazil dente de coelho “rabbit's tooth” means a hidden obstacle and, informally, a crooked scheme.^[2]

Timeline

• 1124 – Houaiss's first date, taken from Machado.^[2]
• 13th century – dentes in the Cantigas de Santa Maria; the derivative dentada “bite” is also recorded.^[7][3]
• 14th century – the spelling dete.^[2]
• 15th century – the spelling demte.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso renders Dente by Latin dens.^[11]
• 1577 – detes in a private letter.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists dentes dianteyros and dentes queyxays.^[8]
• 1813 – Morais adds the teeth of wheels and the dente do arado.^[9]
• 1844 – first record of dentadura.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tooth, each of the hard structures set in the jaws, used for biting and chewing: O menino perdeu o primeiro dente.^[2][13][1]
2. A tooth-like projection of a tool or mechanism: the teeth of a saw, a comb, a gear or a rake; a prong.^[2][14][1]
3. The tusk of an elephant or a wild boar.^[15][14]
4. A clove of garlic: dente de alho.^[1][15]
5. (architecture) A dentil, or a brick or stone left projecting at the end of a wall to bond with a later one.^[2][16]
6. (botany) A small notch on the edge of a leaf or other organ.^[2][16]
7. A pointed summit of a mountain.^[2]

Word family

• dentada
• dentado
• dentadura
• denteado
• dentear
• dentuço
• dentinho
• dente-de-leão

Related words

• dentário
• dentição
• dentista
• -odonte
• odonto-
• dental
• Latin dens
• Spanish diente

Usage notes

Common phrases are dente de leite “milk tooth”, dente do siso or dente do juízo “wisdom tooth”, dente por dente “a tooth for a tooth”, armado até os dentes “armed to the teeth” and com unhas e dentes “tooth and nail”.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dente
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. dente
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. dente
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2556
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. dente
8. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dente
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 530
10. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. dente
11. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. dente
12. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. dente
13. ^ Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. dente
14. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. dente
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. dente
16. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. dente