dentifrangibulum

Latin

FWOTD – 25 April 2024

Etymology

Coined by Plautus, from dēns (“tooth”) +‎ frangō (“break”) +‎ -bulum (suffix forming instrument nouns).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /den.ti.franˈɡi.bu.lum/, [d̪ɛn̪t̪ɪfräŋˈɡɪbʊɫ̪ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /den.ti.franˈd͡ʒi.bu.lum/, [d̪en̪t̪ifrän̠ʲˈd͡ʒiːbulum]

Noun

dentifrangibulum n (genitive dentifrangibulī); second declension

1. (hapax, humorous) fist
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 594–596:

     Pist. At scīn quam īrācundus siem? Nē tibi hercle haud longē est os ab īnfortūniō, ita dentifrangibula haec meīs manibus gestiunt.

     Pist. Do you know how short-tempered I am? Your mouth, by Hercules, is hardly far away from a mishap, so much are these fists stirring in my hands.

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	dentifrangibulum	dentifrangibula
Genitive	dentifrangibulī	dentifrangibulōrum
Dative	dentifrangibulō	dentifrangibulīs
Accusative	dentifrangibulum	dentifrangibula
Ablative	dentifrangibulō	dentifrangibulīs
Vocative	dentifrangibulum	dentifrangibula

Noun

dentifrangibulum

1. accusative singular of dentifrangibulus

Related terms

• dentifrangibulus

References

• “dentĭfrangĭbŭlus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dentĭfrangĭbŭlum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “dentifrangibulus” in volume 5,1, column 549, line 17 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present