Zahn

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Zahn.

Proper noun

Zahn (plural Zahns)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Zahn is the 5695^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 6086 individuals. Zahn is most common among White (93.95%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Zahn”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• Zand (Moselle Franconian; some dialects of Ripuarian)
• Zank (Ripuarian; now chiefly western dialects)

Etymology

From German Zahn, from Middle High German zan, zant, from Old High German zan, zand, from Proto-West Germanic *tanþ.

The velarised form Zank, which is native in most of Ripuarian, has widely been replaced in eastern dialects; some of them have adopted the southern form Zand, others the standard German form Zahn. As can be seen below, the native plural Zäng remains intact. Compare Hand for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsaːn/

Noun

Zahn m (plural Zäng, diminutive Zähnche)

1. (some dialects of Ripuarian) tooth

German

Etymology

From Middle High German zan, zant, from Old High German zan, zand, from Proto-West Germanic *tanþ, from Proto-Germanic *tanþs.

The Old High German nominative zan alongside zand is not quite clear, but may go back to an inherited variation that was levelled in the other old languages. The stems zan- and zand- were then used indiscriminately in Middle High German. The success of the form without -d may have been reinforced by the widespread dialectal development: intervocalic -nd- → -nn-, which produced d-less inflected forms even in dialects that used zand-. Cognates include Dutch and Danish tand, English tooth. See the latter for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡saːn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːn

Noun

Zahn m (strong, genitive Zahnes or Zahns, plural Zähne, diminutive Zähnchen n or Zähnlein n)

1. tooth
2. fang
3. tusk
4. cog, tine

Declension

Declension of Zahn [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Zahn	die	Zähne
genitive	eines	des	Zahnes, Zahns	der	Zähne
dative	einem	dem	Zahn, Zahne1	den	Zähnen
accusative	einen	den	Zahn	die	Zähne

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• auf den Zahn fühlen
• Backenzahn
• Eckzahn
• einen Zahn zulegen
• Fangzahn
• Haare auf den Zähnen haben
• Sägezähne
• Schneidezahn
• steiler Zahn
• Stoßzahn
• verzahnen
• Zahn der Zeit
• Zahnarzt
• Zahnbürste
• Zahncreme
• Zähne zeigen
• zahnen
• Zahnfee
• Zahnfleisch
• Zahnklempner
• zahnlos
• Zahnlücke
• Zahnpasta
• Zahnrad
• Zahnschmelz
• Zahnseide
• Zahnstein
• Zahnstocher

 

Descendants

• → Central Franconian: Zahn

Further reading

• “Zahn” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Zahn” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Zahn” in Duden online
• Zahn on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de