Talk:Fang

Comments

I removed the line about mythology. Listing multiple "were creatures" was not only redundant but horridly obvious (I mean come on, they're based on ANIMALS, I don't see the article on fur mentioning the fact that werewolves and were-bears and were-unicorns have fur) while vampires, demons, sea serpents and bunyips do not universally have fangs. Maybe that line could be replaced with a better version, although I don't really see it as necessary. But it was just plain unsightly the way it was. 68.205.68.57 (talk) 21:13, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Etymology

Etymology: fang could be derived from german "Fangzahn", literally "catching tooth"

Both English and German "fang" are from the Germanic *fangaz, verbal noun from *faŋhanan "to sieze". --89.138.235.244 (talk) 06:45, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

1st, yeah, there should be an etymology section.

2nd, no, English fang is directly from Old English derivatives of *fangaz or from its own fengtoþ (fangtooth). The German compound Fangzahn is just a parallel development.

3rd, the entries on fang and fengtoþ at Wiktionary are both currently problematic because the OUP Old English dictionary it's using directly claims that the Old English term referred to molars instead of incisors, which is almost certainly mistaken. They need a better source stating the Old English was talking about pointy catchteeth, though. — LlywelynII 08:54, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

merge

Spiders and snakes have fangs, not canine teeth. So the proposed merge doesn't work. —Pengo 10:28, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm. Seems to me that the article should mention something about that. In fact, since the term is mostly used to describe spiders and snake teeth, modified to inject venom, it should probably be the main focus of it. In Old English, the term originally meant "to seize, to take hold of", and was synonymous with the modern word "loot" or "booty", as in, "After pillaging the town, the Vikings loaded all their fang onto the longboat and sailed away." It's use to describe canine teeth didn't occur until the Renaissance, but in modern tongue it more often refers to vampires, spiders, and snakes, at least in scientific and technical contexts. Zaereth (talk) 00:25, 20 September 2023 (UTC)

According to wikt:fengtoþ it referred to molars before eye teeth. Arlo James Barnes 19:41, 22 September 2025 (UTC)

Yup, and that's almost certainly wrong. It's an OUP dictionary but the only cite they provide is just a sparse translation of Latin dens ("tooth") without other context. It almost certainly meant dogteeth from the beginning but it needs another valid source to provide the correction. — LlywelynII 08:57, 9 February 2026 (UTC)

Which teeth?

The lead section says that in mammals a fang is a modified maxillary tooth, i.e. an upper tooth. The photo caption says that a cat has two upper and two lower fangs. Which is right? (And if "upper" is right, please say that instead of unnecessary technical language.) --142.112.140.72 (talk) 05:35, 23 June 2025 (UTC)

Fang isn't a scientific term. Proper feline dental jargon refers to the upper and lower canines. Fangs are just whatever you think are the scary teeth. Some people are particularly scared of the larger upper teeth. Some people are scared of both. Most would never use the word fang to refer to cats at all. — LlywelynII 09:00, 9 February 2026 (UTC)