nucifrangibulum

Coined by Plautus, from nux (“a nut”) +‎ frangō (“to break”) +‎ -bulum (forming instrument nouns), literally “a nutcracker”.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [nʊ.kɪ.fraŋˈɡɪ.bʊ.ɫũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [nu.t͡ʃi.fran̠ʲˈd͡ʒiː.bu.lum]

nucifrangibulum n (genitive nucifrangibulī); second declension (Plautine, hapax legomenon, humorous)

1. a tooth

   Synonym: dēns

   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 4.2.15–16:

     […] mihi cautiost,
     ne nucifrangibula excussit ex malis meis.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Second-declension noun (neuter).

• dentifrangibulum

• “nucifrangibulum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “nucifrangibulum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.