teeth

Distinctions

shein (שן)

Fifty-five occurrences in Tanach, mostly a tooth in the mouth of a man or an animal. Extended senses: ivory, in the Ivory House (Melachim I 22:39, Amos 3:15), Ivory Palace (Tehillim 45:9), ivory throne (Melachim I 10:18); in the Mishnah, a tooth (Shabbos 6:5 and often), the tort category of damage done by an animal eating (Bava Kamma 1:4), and the sharp protruding "teeth" of a sickle, a hoe, a saw, a key, a comb (Chullin 1:2, Keilim 13:2-8). The idiom is rich: "whitening one's teeth to his friend," a smile, is better than giving him milk (Kesubos 111b).

Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak trace shein to the two-letter ש-ן without explaining what else that string yields. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim gives the two-letter root the sense "double," and gathers under it shnayim ("two"), shanah ("repeat"), shinun ("sharpening," a repeated rubbing), shoneh ("change"), sheinah ("sleep"), shanah ("year"), and yashan ("old"); shein belongs because most people grow two sets of teeth. Shoresh Yesha prefers to tie shein to shinun directly: chewing, like sharpening, is a repeated motion that wears something down. Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche links ש-ן to ס-נ (sneh, thornbush), the thorns on a branch resembling sharp teeth.

mesalos (מתלעות) and malteos (מלתעות)

Both always plural: mesalos at Iyov 29:17, Yoel 1:6, and Mishlei 30:14; malteos at Tehillim 58:7. The commentators agree the two are one word with the lamed and tav metathesized, and Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak accordingly assign ת-ל-ע and ל-ת-ע with no difference in sense.

Rabbi Pappenheim dissents from the lexicographers: the tav is not part of the core, and both words go back to the two-letter ל-ע, "the organ of swallowing," that is, the throat (loe, Mishlei 23:2). The teeth are named for their nearness to it. He puts tola'as ("worm") in the same family, since worms swallow rather than chew, and parses bala ("swallow") as ב-א ("enter") fused to ל-ע.

Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi (Otzar Nirdafim) makes the distinction explicit: shein is one of the eight incisors at the front, used for biting and cutting, while mesalos/malteos are the ten molars at the back, used for grinding just before swallowing, which fits Rabbi Pappenheim's root exactly. He further parses mesalos as a fusion of ת-ל ("hanging," a tooth hangs in the gums) with ל-ע ("swallowing"). Rashi (to Yoel 1:6 and Mishlei 30:14), Radak (Sefer HaShorashim), and the Biur HaGra (to Mishlei 31:9) all define them as thick teeth set deeper in the mouth than a shein. Ibn Parchon (Machberes HeAruch) instead makes them the long teeth protruding from a wild animal's mouth, that is, fangs. A third resolution: shein is the general term for teeth of every kind, and mesalos/malteos the specific one, whether fangs, tusks, or molars.

kaka (ככא) and nivi (ניבי)

The Targumim render shein into Aramaic as kaka (Tehillim 3:8, 35:16, Iyov 19:20) or leave it as shina, but they render mesalos/malteos as nivi (Mishlei 30:14, Iyov 29:17, Yoel 1:6, Tehillim 58:7). The consistent split is itself evidence that the Hebrew words differ. In the Gemara kaka is a tooth (Pesachim 113a, Yoma 84a), and when Rava dreamed his shein and kaka all fell out (Berachos 56a), Rashi explains kaka as the inner teeth, molars, implying shein is the outer ones. Tosafos (to Avodah Zarah 28a, Gittin 69a) reject the suggestion that kaka means gums and read it as large teeth.

Nivi in the Gemara is less settled: on Chullin 59a, where an animal's kosher status is read from its shein and nivi, Rashi gives two explanations, either two teeth that stand out from the rest or the indentations in the gums where teeth should have been. Tosafos there prefer the first; the Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah 79:1) cites both. (The Biblical Hebrew niv of Yeshayahu 57:19 and Malachi 1:12 is speech, a different word.)

gallal (גלל)

Achiyah HaShiloni foretold the end of the House of Yeravam, that they would be consumed "as the gallal consumes until it is wholly gone" (Melachim I 14:10), and Bava Kamma 2b takes gallal as "tooth," meaning the tort category. Three explanations: Rabbeinu Chananel (cited by Tosafos) reads gallal as something rock hard (Ezra 5:8, 6:5), and teeth are hard; Rashi (to Bava Kamma 3a) ties it to gilui, revealing, a body part sometimes shown and sometimes hidden; Rashi alternatively takes gallal in its plain sense of dung, teeth being the body's instrument for turning food into refuse.

chit (חיט)

The Mishnah (Bechoros 6:4) and the Sifra (Emor, parshasa 7:12) count as a blemish an outer chit that is defective or cut, or an inner chit wholly uprooted, but not an inner chit merely defective (Bechoros 6:12). Rashi (to Bechoros 35a): the gums, the outer chit being where the incisors belong and the inner where the molars belong. The Mainz commentary ascribed to Rabbeinu Gershom (there) and Rabbi Nosson of Rome (Sefer HeAruch) read chit as the teeth themselves. Rambam (to Bechoros 6:4) had a different girsa reading chut, with a vav.

Rendering guidance

• Shein: tooth, or ivory where the object is made of it. In the tort sugyos leave it transliterated, shein, since it names a category.
• Mesalos / malteos: molars following Rashi, Radak, the Gra, and Rabbi Tedeschi; fangs where the subject is a beast and Ibn Parchon's reading fits. Do not silently write "teeth."
• Kaka and nivi stay transliterated in a Gemara passage, glossed once from the Hebrew they translate.
• Chit: gums or teeth, whichever the posek in front of you follows; say which.
• Trap: English "teeth" covers shein, mesalos, malteos, kaka, nivi, and gallal alike. Wherever two of them stand in one pasuk or one sugya (Mishlei 30:14, "whose teeth are swords and whose mesalos are knives"; Berachos 56a; Chullin 59a), the passage is drawing exactly the line English erases. Give the general word "teeth" and the specific one "molars," or transliterate the second.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Showing Teeth," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 Iyar 5783 (2023-04-22): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/10931-showing-teeth.md. Primary loci: Iyov 29:17; Yoel 1:6; Mishlei 30:14, 23:2, 31:9; Tehillim 58:7, 3:8, 35:16, 45:9; Melachim I 14:10, 22:39, 10:18; Amos 3:15; Ezra 5:8, 6:5; Bava Kamma 1:4, 2b, 3a; Chullin 1:2, 59a; Bechoros 6:4, 6:12, 35a; Berachos 56a; Pesachim 113a; Yoma 84a; Kesubos 111b, 71a; Keilim 13:2-8; Sifra, Emor parshasa 7:12; Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 79:1; Rabbi Moshe Tedeschi Ashkenazi, Otzar Nirdafim; Ibn Parchon, Machberes HeAruch. The article's academic etymology of chit and its report of the Lachish comb inscription are omitted here per house rule 9.