Fluoriding

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Adding fluoride compound to a water supply or applying it to teeth to help prevent decay
2. Supplying a substance containing fluorine ions to drinking water or dental surfaces to strengthen enamel
3. Treating water, teeth, or another material with a fluorine-based compound to reduce tooth decay

Etymology: "Fluoriding" is the present participle and gerund of "fluoride" used as a verb, meaning to treat water or teeth with fluoride. The noun "fluoride" was coined in 1886 by the French chemist Henri Moissan, who isolated elemental fluorine that year, from "fluor," the Latin-derived name for a group of minerals (fluorite, or fluorspar) that were used as fluxes in metalworking. "Fluor" itself comes from the Latin "fluere," to flow, because these minerals lowered the melting point of ores and made them run more easily in a furnace. The verb sense came much later. Fluoride was first added to drinking water in the 1940s, and the practice of fluoridating public water supplies spread in the United States and elsewhere from the 1945 trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From that practice the verb "to fluoride" developed, and its present participle "fluoriding" follows the regular pattern of English verbs ending in a consonant after a stressed syllable, so the final "e" of "fluoride" drops before "-ing."