Where does “dentistry” come from?
Dentistry is an English formation from dentist plus the suffix -ry, with dentist coming from French dentiste, combining Latin dens meaning tooth with French -iste from Latin -ista and Ancient Greek -ιστής.
dentistry (English): The field of medicine concerned with the study,...
Definitions
- The field of medicine concerned with the study,...
Ancestry of “dentistry”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | dentist | A medical doctor who specializes in dentistry |
| 2 | French | dentiste | dentist |
| 3 | French | dent | tooth; cog |
| 4 | Middle French | dent | tooth |
| 5 | Old French | dent | tooth |
| 6 | Latin | dēns | a tooth |
| 7 | Italian | dente | tooth; cog, prong |
| 8 | Latin | dens | tooth; a spike, prong, or any tooth-like... |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | dents | tooth |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃dónts | tooth |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁ed- | to eat |