fauces

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔː.siːz/

Noun

fauces pl (plural only)

1. (anatomy) The narrow passage from the mouth to the pharynx, situated between the soft palate and the base of the tongue.
2. (botany) The throat of a calyx, corolla, etc.
3. (zoology) That portion of the interior of a spiral shell which can be seen by looking into the aperture.

Translations

passage from the mouth to the pharynx

• Bulgarian: гърло (bg) n (gǎrlo), глътка (bg) f (glǎtka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 咽門／咽门 (yānmén)

• Finnish: nielu (fi)
• Middle English: cheke

References

• 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.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “fauces”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Etymology

Plural of faux, of unknown etymology.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfau̯.keːs/, [ˈfäu̯keːs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfau̯.t͡ʃes/, [ˈfäːu̯t͡ʃes]

Noun

faucēs f pl (genitive faucium); third declension

1. (literal) the upper part of a throat; a throat, pharynx, gullet
   • c. 77 CE – 79 CE, Pliny the Elder, 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.

2. (transferred sense)
   1. a narrow entrance, entry passage
   2. a defile, gorge
   3. the jaws of the earth; a gulf, abyss
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 6.201:

     Inde ubi venere ad fauces grave olentis Averni

     Till over foul Avernus’ sulphurous throat

Inflection

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

Case	Plural
Nominative	faucēs
Genitive	faucium
Dative	faucibus
Accusative	faucēs faucīs
Ablative	faucibus
Vocative	faucēs

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

Derived terms

• see: fōx

Descendants

• → English: fauces
• → Galician: fauces
• → Italian: fauci
• → Portuguese: fauces
• → Spanish: fauces

References

• “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’s 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

Spanish

Noun

fauces

1. plural of fauce