fauces

English

Fauces (throat) on Wikipedia

Borrowing from Latin faucēs (“the upper part of a throat”).

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fauces pl (normally plural, singular faux)

(anatomy) The narrow passage from the mouth to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the tongue.
(botany) The throat of a calyx, corolla, etc.
(zoology) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be seen by looking into the aperture.
- 1826, Mary Anne Venning, Rudiments of Conchology, page 94:
  There are two orange-coloured spots at the fauces of that Cypræa Isabella, whence its name, orange-tip.
- 1872, American Journal of Conchology, volume 7, page 226:
  Even at that early age the lamella in the fauces may be distinctly traced through the translucent shell.
- 1993, Recovery Plan for the Oʻahu Tree Snails of the Genus Achatinella, page 14:
  The tubercle is the same color but with white fauces. The glossy shell coloring is extremely various; the background is white, yellow or black, with or without longitudinal zigzag lines, transverse bands or blotches covering the surface.

passage from the mouth to the pharynx

Raija Hurme, Maritta Pesonen, Olli Syväoja, editors (1993), Englanti-Suomi suursanakirja, 4th edition, →ISBN, page 426
Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Portland House, 1989. →ISBN.
“fauces”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
“fauces”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
“fauces”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Plural of faux, of unknown etymology.^[1]

faucēs f pl (genitive faucium); third declension

(literal) the upper part of a throat; a throat, pharynx, gullet
- 77 CE – 79 CE, Plinius Maior, Naturalis Historia 7.2.15:
  Et tamen omnibus hominibus contrā serpentēs inest venēnum: ferunt ictum salīvae ut ferventis aquae contāctum fugere; quod sī in faucēs penetrāverit, etiam morī, idque maximē hūmānī iēiūnī ōris.
  And still all people have a venom against snakes: they say that they avoid the attack of saliva like the touch of boiling water; and if it makes its way into the throat, they also die, and most of all in the case of that of a fasted human mouth.
(transferred sense) a narrow entrance, entry passage; a defile, gorge; the jaws of the earth; a gulf, abyss
- 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.5:
  Castra sunt in Italiā contrā populum Rōmānum in Etrūriae faucibus conlocāta, […] .
  A camp has been established in Italy, set against the Roman people, in the passageway of Etruria.
- 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Vergilius, Aeneid 6.201:
  Inde ubi venere ad fauces grave olentis Averni
  Till over foul Avernus’ sulphurous throat

Third-declension noun (i-stem), plural only.

The word is often plural, although a single instance of the nominative singular form faux is known.

“fauces”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“fauces”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
"fauces", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
“fauces”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
“fauces”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“fauces”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 217

fauces