dentalium
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
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
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
They, however, very frequently wear the collar of the bears' claws, but not the long strings of beads 195 and dentalium shells, which are used by the Manitaries.
From Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843) Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume XXII by Maximilian, Alexander Philipp
There is a common little sea-shell found in the Pacific Ocean called the dentalium.
From American Indians by Starr, Frederick
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
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.
