the.com/toothache
your skull's emergency broadcast system, screaming because a single nerve filed a formal complaint
means A pain in or around a tooth, usually caused by decay, infection, or a damaged nerve.
from Plain Old English plumbing: tōþ (tooth) bolted to æce (ache, a pain). 'Tooth' traces back to a Proto-Germanic root that's a distant cousin of Latin 'dens' and Greek 'odous' — the same family that gives us 'dental' and 'dentist.' 'Ache' began life as a verb, 'acan,' to hurt; the noun was once spelled 'ache' but pronounced like the letter H ('aitch'), which is why old texts can look confusing. So the word is simply two of the oldest, bluntest English pieces clamped together — a tooth that hurts, said exactly like it feels.
- referred pain
- can disguise itself as ear or jaw pain
- clove cure
- eugenol numbed teeth for centuries before dentists existed
- patron saint
- Saint Apollonia, after her teeth were violently removed
- heart warning
- jaw pain sometimes signals a heart attack, not cavities
- no comfort
- a confined nerve has nowhere to swell, so agony
george washington's dentures — caused chronic pain and discomfort throughout his presidency, 1789-1797