TOOTH  牙齒牙

HARD WHITE THINGS in the MOUTH which are USED FOR BITING AND CHEWING.
FANGTUSKMOLARINCISORZOOLOGY DENTICLEINFORMAL PEARLY WHITE(TEETH) INFORMAL CHOPPERS
Hypernym
Old Chinese Criteria
1. Chǐ 齒 refers to the visible front teeth, thus when one smiles one shows one's chǐ 齒, xiàn chǐ 見齒, and only if one were vampire-like would one show any yá 牙. Chǐ 齒 does not typically refer to the teeth as weapons of aggressive action. The teeth by which one judges age are always chǐ 齒, and the teeth with which one commonly chews tend quite as often to be chǐ 齒. The front teeth that get cold when the lips are gone, are chǐ 齒 in classical Chinese, and they are not seen in that common saying as aggressive weapons. The admirable white teeth of a lady are the chǐ 齒, only in the case of vampires yá 牙. We have goǔ yá 狗牙 but mǎ chí 馬齒. One grinds one's chǐ 齒, 切齒, not one's yá 牙. The first teeth of a child are never yá 牙 and regularly chǐ 齒, and similarly for the teeth that an old man loses, when chǐ duò 齒墮 "the teeth fall out". Interestingly, the elephant has chǐ 齒, never yá 牙, presumably because these tusks were taken to be a threat to his own survival, not to man.

2. Yá 牙 can occasionally generally refer to teeth, even the exquisite teeth of a woman, but the word typically refers to the large side teeth or fangs of an animal with which it bites, and which are seen as a threat. The threatening teeth of an animal, the teeth with which a rat attacks one's home, are yá 牙. Thus one speaks of the zhuǎ yá 爪牙 "the claws and fangs" as metaphors for weapons. Theses are sharp like fangs, and as such they lend themselves to metaphorical use to indicate dented patterns in ornaments.

黄金貴：古漢語同義詞辨釋詞典
HUANG JINGUI 2006

HUMAN BODY 35.

齒，口內諸齒的總稱。

牙，犬齒。

Modern Chinese Criteria
牙

牙齒

齒

乳齒

奶牙

rough draft to BEGIN TO identify synonym group members for analysis, based on CL etc. 18.11.2003. CH ／

  • A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages ( BUCK 1988) p. 4.27

  • Bibliographisches Handbuch zur Sprachinhaltsforschung. Teil II. Systematischer Teil. B. Ordnung nach Sinnbezirken (mit einem alphabetischen Begriffsschluessel): Der Mensch und seine Welt im Spiegel der Sprachforschung ( FRANKE 1989) p. 7

    ZAEHNE

  • 韓非子同義詞研究 ( HANFEI TONGYI 2004) p. 56

  • A Russian-English Collocational Dictionary of the Human Body ( IORDANSKAJA 1996) p. 137

  • 論衡同義詞研究 ( LUNHENG TONGYI 2004) p. 23

  • Dictionnaire culturel en langue francaise ( REY 2005) p. 1.2259

  • 古辭辨 Gu ci bian ( WANG FENGYANG 1993) p. 120

  • 王力古漢語字典 ( WANG LI 2000) p. 681

    牙，齒

    1. WL follows received opinion in claiming that the front teeth are chi3 齒 whereas the side teeth are ya2 牙: 門牙稱齒，其餘的稱牙. But as Ko3ng Yi3ngda2 already pointed out, primarily the large agressive teeth like the fangs of a fierce dog are ya2 牙, and even the front teeth of a rat, because of their prominence, are ya2 牙. Ko3ng's definition, which WL quote, is right: 頷上大齒謂之牙, and the trouble is that WL do not realise that this explanation is quite inconsistent of with the traditional explanation of ya2 牙 as all teeth other than front teeth.

  • 中國文化背景八千詞 Zhongguo wenhua beijing ba qian ci ( WU SANXING 2008) p. 61

Attributions by syntactic funtion

  • n : 56
  • NP : 4
  • nadV : 1
  • VPi : 1
  • vi : 1

Attributions by text

  • 韓非子 : 8
  • 禮記 : 7
  • 韓詩外傳 : 7
  • 春秋左傳 : 6
  • 毛詩 : 4
  • 史記 : 4
  • 楚辭 : 4
  • 管子 : 3
  • 賢愚經 : 3
  • 淮南子 : 3
  • 論衡 : 2
  • 春秋穀梁傳 : 2
  • 妙法蓮華經 : 2
  • 祖堂集 : 2
  • 阮籍集四卷 : 1
  • 論語 : 1
  • 莊子 : 1
  • 百喻經 : 1
  • 荀子 : 1
  • 黃帝內經 : 1

Words

齒  chǐ OC: khljɯʔ MC: tɕhɨ 44 AttributionsWD

Chǐ 齒 refers to the visible front teeth, thus when one smiles one shows one's chǐ 齒, xiàn chǐ 見齒, and only if one were vampire-like would one show any yá 牙. Chǐ 齒 does not typically refer to the teeth as weapons of aggressive action. The teeth by which one judges age are always chǐ 齒, and the teeth with which one commonly chews tend quite as often to be chǐ 齒. The front teeth that get cold when the lips are gone, are chǐ 齒 in classical Chinese, and they are not seen in that common saying as aggressive weapons. The admirable white teeth of a lady are the chǐ 齒, only in the case of vampires yá 牙. We have goǔ yá 狗牙 but mǎ chí 馬齒. One grinds one's chǐ 齒, 切齒, not one's yá 牙. The first teeth of a child are never yá 牙 and regularly chǐ 齒, and similarly for the teeth that an old man loses, when chǐ duò 齒墮"the teeth fall out". Interestingly, the elephant has chǐ 齒, never yá 牙, presumably because these tusks were taken to be a threat to his own survival, not to man.

    Word relations
  • Epithet: 皓/WHITE Hào 皓 (ant. xuán 玄 and zào 皂 "dark and black") refers to gleaming whiteness.
  • Assoc: 牙/TOOTH Yá 牙 can occasionally generally refer to teeth, even the exquisite teeth of a woman, but the word typically refers to the large side teeth or fangs of an animal with which it bites, and which are seen as a threat. The threatening teeth of an animal, the teeth with which a rat attacks one's home, are yá 牙. Thus one speaks of the zhuǎ yá 爪牙"the claws and fangs" as metaphors for weapons. Theses are sharp like fangs, and as such they lend themselves to metaphorical use to indicated dented patterns in ornaments.
  • Oppos: 唇 / 脣/LIP The standard word for the lips is chún 唇／脣.
  • Oppos: 舌/TONGUE The current standard word for the tongue of humans or animals is shé 舌.

    Syntactic words
  • n(normally human or equine etc) front teeth, tooth
  • nadVinstrumentwith the teeth
牙  yá OC: ŋɡraa MC: ŋɣɛ 13 AttributionsWD

Yá 牙 can occasionally generally refer to teeth, even the exquisite teeth of a woman, but the word typically refers to the large side teeth or fangs of an animal with which it bites, and which are seen as a threat. The threatening teeth of an animal, the teeth with which a rat attacks one's home, are yá 牙. Thus one speaks of the zhuǎ yá 爪牙"the claws and fangs" as metaphors for weapons. Theses are sharp like fangs, and as such they lend themselves to metaphorical use to indicated dented patterns in ornaments.

    Word relations
  • Assoc: 爪/CLAWS The current word for the claws or fingernails is zhuǎ 爪.
  • Assoc: 齒/TOOTH Chǐ 齒 refers to the visible front teeth, thus when one smiles one shows one's chǐ 齒, xiàn chǐ 見齒, and only if one were vampire-like would one show any yá 牙. Chǐ 齒 does not typically refer to the teeth as weapons of aggressive action. The teeth by which one judges age are always chǐ 齒, and the teeth with which one commonly chews tend quite as often to be chǐ 齒. The front teeth that get cold when the lips are gone, are chǐ 齒 in classical Chinese, and they are not seen in that common saying as aggressive weapons. The admirable white teeth of a lady are the chǐ 齒, only in the case of vampires yá 牙. We have goǔ yá 狗牙 but mǎ chí 馬齒. One grinds one's chǐ 齒, 切齒, not one's yá 牙. The first teeth of a child are never yá 牙 and regularly chǐ 齒, and similarly for the teeth that an old man loses, when chǐ duò 齒墮"the teeth fall out". Interestingly, the elephant has chǐ 齒, never yá 牙, presumably because these tusks were taken to be a threat to his own survival, not to man.

    Syntactic words
  • nfangs; teeth
  • nelephantivory elephant teeth
  • nfigurativetooth-like shape; dented ornament
  • nhumanhuman teeth, visible
齒牙  chǐ yá OC: khljɯʔ ŋɡraa MC: tɕhɨ ŋɣɛ 3 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPpluralteeth
齠  Click here to add pinyin OC:  MC: 1 AttributionWD

tiáo

    Syntactic words
  • viprocessloose one's baby teeth and get adults' teeth
狗牙  gǒu yá OC: kooʔ ŋɡraa MC: ku ŋɣɛ 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • NPdog's fangs (probably mistake for 鉤牙 "hook-teeth")
齔齒  chèn chǐ OC: tshrins khljɯʔ MC: ʈʂhɪn tɕhɨ 1 AttributionWD
    Syntactic words
  • VPichange one's milk teeth
幘  zé OC: skreeɡ MC: ʈʂɣɛk 0 AttributionsWD
    Syntactic words
  • nK: ZUO white shiny teeth Lu Deming: loan for cè 齒p lu s真

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