fauchard

[ foh-shahr; French foh-shar ]

noun

, plural fau·chards [foh-, shahrz, foh-, shar].

1. a shafted weapon having a knifelike blade with a convex cutting edge and a beak on the back for catching the blade of an aggressor's weapon.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fauchard¹

< French; Old French fauchart, equivalent to fauch ( er ) to cut with a scythe (< Vulgar Latin *falcāre, derivative of Latin falx, stem falc- sickle) + -art -art

Example Sentences

By the early 18th century, French dentist Pierre Fauchard was strapping patients’ teeth to metal arches to wrangle crooked smiles into submission.

From Slate

Even after Fauchard’s innovations, gruesome and bloody services persisted.

From Economist

Pierre Fauchard, the first self-styled dentiste, helped put a stop to that with his scientific approach to oral health.

From Economist

Fauchard believed that what the world’s wealthy needed was to have nice teeth that functioned properly, and he became rich in his own right by providing dentures to Parisian elites.

From Economist

In 1728, Frenchman Dr. Pierre Fauchard, the father of dentistry, recommended rubbing one's teeth and gums with a piece of sponge.

From Project Gutenberg