Chompers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A slang reference to the teeth that are utilized for biting and grinding food while also serving as a humorous indication of someone's mouth during eating
2. An informal term for the dental parts responsible for mastication, often used in a lighthearted context associated with consumption
3. A colloquial expression for the teeth involved in chewing food and sometimes humorously depicting someone's mouth when engaging in eating activities

Etymology: Chompers is simply the plural of "chomper," which is built from "chomp" plus the agent suffix "-er," meaning one that does the action. The verb "chomp" is itself an imitative formation, the kind of sound-based word that echoes the noisy champing of a jaw. The suffix has a long lineage: it descends from Proto-Italic and Latin "-arius," which denoted a person connected with or performing something, passed through Old English "-ere" and Middle English "-er," and so arrived in English as a productive ending for doers and things that do. Because "chomper" applies to a thing that does the chomping, it became a playful way of naming teeth themselves. The word's humour lies in treating the jaw as a set of working tools, a joke that works best when the speaker imagines someone's mouth busily at work over a meal.

Synonyms: teeth, jaws, bite, choppers, dentition