Max from La Jolla, California, named his beloved rescue dog Snaggletooth. A snaggletooth is “a broken tooth” or “a tooth projects beyond the mouth.” It’s from the same linguistic root as snag, originally “a tree stump” or “a broken branch,” and later “a tree branch projecting from the water that impedes a boat’s progress.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What Does “Snaggletooth” Mean?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, calling you from La Jolla, Max Jennings.
Hi, Max. Welcome to the show. What’s up?
Hi, Max.
Thank you. I’ve been doing volunteer work at the San Diego Humane Society for about three or four years in adoptions.
And unfortunately, about two years ago, we lost our cocker spaniel to cancer.
So we waited about four or five months, and then I was at work, and one of my coworkers, one of my colleagues said, have you seen Ben?
So I go in to see Ben, and this gorgeous, falling in love immediately dog comes over to me and puts his two front paws up on my lap.
And I look down at him, and he just wants to lick me and give me kisses and what have you.
And he turns sideways, and I see something kind of unusual about his mouth.
So I finally got him to hold still enough, and there is this snaggle tooth, it’s called, on the lower left-hand side that wraps, goes out of his mouth, and comes up over his upper lip.
Where does the term snaggle tooth come from?
Where did it originate?
It makes sense if you know that the root of snaggletooth is simply snag, which in the 16th century meant a stump of a tree or a branch, something that’s been like a short, jagged projection, a tree branch that’s been broken off.
And later on, you get the idea of a tree or a branch in the water that maybe causes a snag when your boat is going in the water.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah.
And I was thinking, you know, maybe it was something like this, something that caught on something.
Like if you’re wearing a sweater and you’re walking by a bush or a tree and it snags on that.
And that’s the only thing I could think of.
Right, that’s the same idea.
Yeah, you have that little tooth projecting that same way.
Okay, well, thank you for letting me know that.
I never thought of it kind of like that angle.
Well, Max, it sounds like you both lucked out.
So thank you for your work with the Humane Society, and thank you for calling.
And thank you for your stories.
You’ve warmed our hearts.
Take care of yourself and the dog, right?
Thank you, folks.
Have a great day.
Take care.
All righty.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
