dentalium
Americannoun
plural
dentaliums, dentalianoun
Etymology
Origin of dentalium
1860–65; < New Latin < Medieval Latin dentāl ( is ) dental + -ium -ium
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At the unveiling, Shaginoff wore a fire bag she’d made and decorated with dentalium shells.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 12, 2021
Long earrings, each made from about 120 dentalium shells.
From American Antiquities Auction Catalogue, January 8, 1898 by Norman, Wm. B.
The dentalium; the shell money or wampum of the Pacific coast.
From Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, or, Trade Language of Oregon by Gibbs, George
The natives of the coast are fond of it as ornament, and among them strings of dentalium shells serve for money just as wampum did in the east.
From American Indians by Starr, Frederick
The Karok use as money the red scalps of woodpeckers which are rated at from $2.50 to $5.00 each, and also dentalium shells of which they grind off the tip.
From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by Sumner, William Graham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
