dentifricium

Latin

FWOTD – 9 February 2018

Etymology

From dens (“tooth”) +‎ fricō (“to rub”) +‎ -ium.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /den.tiˈfri.ki.um/, [d̪ɛn̪t̪ɪˈfrɪkiʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /den.tiˈfri.t͡ʃi.um/, [d̪en̪t̪iˈfriːt͡ʃium]

Noun

dentifricium n (genitive dentifriciī or dentifricī); second declension

1. tooth powder, toothpaste
   • Pliny the Elder, Natural History, XXVIII, 28, 11, 49, §182

     Efficax habetur et caprino lacte conlui dentes vel felle taurino. Talorum caprae recentium cinis dentifricio placet et omnium fere villaticarum quadrupedum, ne saepius eadem dicantur.

     It is also held to be very efficacious to wash the teeth with goat milk or gall from a bull. The anklebones of a nanny goat recently killed, [burned to] ashes is good as a toothpaste, as are the bones of all quadrupedal farm animals in most cases, to avoid repeating this too much.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	dentifricium	dentifricia
genitive	dentifriciī dentifricī1	dentifriciōrum
dative	dentifriciō	dentifriciīs
accusative	dentifricium	dentifricia
ablative	dentifriciō	dentifriciīs
vocative	dentifricium	dentifricia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Descendants

• → Catalan: dentifrici
• → English: dentifrice
• → French: dentifrice
  • → Portuguese: dentífrico
• → Italian: dentifricio
• → Spanish: dentífrico

References

• “dentifricium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dentifricium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.