dinte

Forms

dinte m (plural dinți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dēns (“tooth”), continued in the accusative form ⟨dentem⟩, a word found in every Romance language.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Latin had it from Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts (“tooth”); its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús), Sanskrit दत् (dát), Lithuanian dantìs and Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌸𐌿𐍃 (tunþus).^[7][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian dinte, Megleno-Romanian dinti and Istro-Romanian dinte.^{[3][2][8][9][10]} Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian diant, Italian dente, French dent, Catalan dent, Spanish diente and Portuguese dente.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, dated by DELR to about 1500, where the plural dinții “the teeth” occurs in several psalms (3:8, 34:19, 56:6).^[2][11] The Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553 has „acolo va fi plâns și scârcitul dinților” “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”, and the Palia of 1581 says of Judah „și dinții lui mai albi vor fi decât laptele” “and his teeth shall be whiter than milk”.^[12] MDA2 gives the Bible of 1688 as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “tooth” has stayed central;^[13] Tiktin notes that in the narrow sense the word means a front tooth, as opposed to colț “canine” and măsea “molar”.^[13] From its shape it came to name the teeth of a comb, saw, rake, harrow or gear wheel, the point of a pickaxe, and a steep rocky peak.^[2][3] In Maramureș dinte is a name for chives.^[2][14] Plant names include dintele-dracului, water pepper (Polygonum hydropiper).^[15]

Among the derivatives, dințat “toothed, notched” (1840) is formed on the plural dinți after French denté.^[2] Dințărit, a jocular word for a “tax” paid by the person who has also given the food, is formed with the suffix of the old tax names, as in gărdurărit;^[3] Candrea took it from a Turkish phrase meaning “money for the teeth”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – dinții in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][11]
• 1551–1553 – „scârcitul dinților” “the gnashing of teeth” in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[12]
• 1581 – „dinții lui mai albi vor fi decât laptele” “his teeth shall be whiter than milk” in the Palia of 1581.^[12]
• 1688 – „ochiu pentru ochiu, dinte pentru dinte” “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13][4]
• 1840 – dințat “toothed”.^[2]
• 1875 – dințar, a tool for setting the teeth of a saw.^[2]
• 1906 – dințăriță, the plant cow-wheat, in Panțu.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tooth: one of the small bony organs covered with enamel in the mouth of most vertebrates, used to bite and chew food; more narrowly, a front tooth;^[15][4] dinte de lapte “milk tooth”.^[15][4]
2. A toothlike point on the edge of a tool or part: of a comb, saw, rake, harrow or cogwheel.^[2][3]
3. A steep rocky peak.^[3][2]
4. (regional, Maramureș) chives (Allium schoenoprasum).^[2][14]

Word family

• dința
• dințar
• dințat
• dințărit
• dințătură
• dințișor

Related words

• Latin dēns

Usage notes

Common expressions: soare cu dinți “sun on a frosty day”, a-și arăta dinții “to show one's teeth, to threaten”, înarmat până în dinți “armed to the teeth” and printre dinți “indistinctly, through one's teeth”.^[15][4] A avea un dinte împotriva cuiva “to bear someone a grudge” is a gallicism according to Tiktin.^[13][15] A-și lua inima în dinți means “to pluck up courage”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dinte
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. dinte
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 718
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 46
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2556
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 201
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 393
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 3:8
12. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dinte
13. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dinte
14. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. dinte
15. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 316