Teethes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Grows and pushes out teeth through the gums, typically in infants ; to bite or chew on an object, especially to relieve the discomfort of teething
2. Experiences the emergence of teeth from the gums, as infants naturally do ; to gnaw or bite repeatedly on something for soothing or comfort
3. Has teeth come through the gums during early development ; to masticate or bite down on an object to ease pain or irritation

Etymology: "Teethes" is simply the third-person singular present form of "teethe", so its story is really the story of the verb. The verb descends from Old English "tēþan", which meant to grow or cut teeth, and that in turn comes from a Proto-Germanic verb "tanþijaną" built on the noun "tanþs", meaning tooth. The verb was therefore formed directly from the body part it describes: to teethe is literally to tooth, to produce teeth. The Middle English form "tethen" shows the same sound pattern that later English reshaped. The verb kept its meaning across the centuries, and its German cousin "zähnen" still means to provide something with teeth, a sense that English has largely lost. In English the word came to refer only to the infant's painful process of cutting teeth, while the broader sense of simply giving teeth to something faded.

Synonyms: dentates