dentalium

Borrowed from translingual Dentalium, from Latin dentālis (“dental”), dēns (“tooth”), Proto-Italic *dents and Proto-Indo-European *h₃dónts.

dentalium (plural dentalia or dentaliums)

1. Any of various tooth shells of the genus Dentalium.
   • 1999, Jonathan C. H. King, First Peoples, First Contacts: Native Peoples of North America, page 138:

     Apart from the two or three bird masks, the only other zoomorphic mask was a wolf frontlet of cedar decorated in micaceous black paint with dentalium teeth, dentalium being an important form of wealth with some of the attributes of a currency.

• Dentalium (genus) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dentalium on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Dentalium on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• datum line, luminated, malunited

dentālium

1. genitive masculine/feminine/neuter plural of dentālis