| 释义 |
dentalium|dɛnˈteɪlɪəm|
Pl. dentalia.
[mod.L. (Linnæus Systema Naturæ (ed. 10, 1758) I. 785), f. L. dentāl-is, f. dens, dent-em tooth.]
A tooth-shell of the genus so named (cf. dental B. 4). Also attrib.
1864Proc. Zool. Soc. 137 The value of the Dentalium depends upon its length. Ibid. 138 At one period, perhaps a remote one, in the history of the inland Indians these Dentalia were worn as ornaments. 1913B. B. Woodward Life of Mollusca iv. 55 The Dentalium, again, buries in the sand, leaving only the apex of the shell protruding. 1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 4 July 21/5 The effort to secure the dentalium at seacoast places, and its employment so widely by peoples far removed from the seacoast means that much more than merely ornamental value was placed upon it. 1931Antiquity V. 431 Dentalium and pusiostoma shells are the most numerous. 1932Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. LXII. 267 Two skeletons..had head-dresses of dentalium shells. 1938Nature 19 Feb. 306/2 They had necklaces, too, made of dentalium, alternating with ‘twin’ pendants, which seem to me to imitate the canines of deer. 1960K. M. Kenyon Archæol. in Holy Land ii. 38 At ῾Ain Mallaha..a burial closely resembling that of Mount Carmel, with a crown of dentalia shells, was made in a pit lined with plaster. |