dentiloquist

English

Etymology

From Latin dens (tooth) + Latin loqui (to speak).

Noun

dentiloquist (plural dentiloquists)

1. (rare) Someone who speaks through clenched teeth.
   • 1834, letter from John Fawcett to Charles Matthews dated 10 March 1834, re-printed in Anne Jackson Mathews, Memoirs of Charles Mathews, Comedian, Volume IV, Richard Bentley (1839), page 183:

     To add to my mumbling complaint, (for, you must know, I have been quite a dentiloquist,) I have an only sister on a visit to me, who has been alarmingly ill for some time.

   • 1992, Peter Bowler, The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words, David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., →ISBN, page 19:

     Ventriloquists are almost, though not completely, dentiloquists.

Related terms

• dentiloquy