Human tooth Archives – A Way with Words

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Currently viewing the tag: "Human tooth"

Carter’s Lost Note to the Tooth Fairy

Posted by Grant Barrett on September 11, 2021 · Add Comment

After our conversation about long-forgotten items left in books, a volunteer at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock, Vermont, writes to say that he found an old letter to the Tooth Fairy tucked inside a donated book. The letter is from July 1996, and the volunteer hopes to reunite the writer with that note. [...]

What Does “Snaggletooth” Mean?

Posted by Grant Barrett on January 9, 2021 · Add Comment

Max from La Jolla, California, named his beloved rescue dog Snaggletooth. A snaggletooth is “a broken tooth” or “a tooth projects beyond the mouth.” It’s from the same linguistic root as snag, originally “a tree stump” or “a broken branch,” and later “a tree branch projecting from the water that impedes a boat’s progress.” This [...]

Prophylactic

Posted by Grant Barrett on March 21, 2020 · Add Comment

Anna from Alden, Michigan, recalls as a child looking up the word prophylactic in the dictionary. It goes back to the Greek word phylax, which means “guard.” To guard against tooth decay, you can get dental prophylaxis, also known as teeth cleaning. This is part of a complete episode.

Long In The Tooth

Posted by Grant Barrett on July 23, 2012 · Add Comment

If someone’s getting long in the tooth, it means they’re getting old, or too old for their behavior. The metaphor of long teeth comes from horses. If you look at a horse’s teeth and the extent to which their gums have receded, you can tell pretty accurately how old they are. It’s the same source [...]

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Carter’s Lost Note to the Tooth Fairy

What Does “Snaggletooth” Mean?

Prophylactic

Long In The Tooth