Where does “dens” come from?
dens (Latin) comes from Italian dente, from Latin dens, from Proto-Italic dents, from Proto-Indo-European h₃dónts, from Proto-Indo-European h₁ed- — to eat.
Ancestry of “dens”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Italian | dente | tooth; cog, prong |
| 2 | Latin | dens | tooth; a spike, prong, or any tooth-like... |
| 3 | Proto-Italic | dents | tooth |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | h₃dónts | tooth |
| 5 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁ed- | to eat |