Forms: α. 1–4 tux (1 twux), 3–7 tuske, 7– tusk. β. 4–5 tosk, pl. toskes. [OE. tux (whence by metathesis ME. tusk, tosk), normal and common variant of the rare OE. tusc (whence TUSH sb.1), = OFris. tusk, tusch, tosch (mod. WFris. tosk, NFris. tosk, toske, LG. of East Friesland tûsk); in OEFris. the mutated plural form tesch also occurs. There are no certain cognates outside of the Anglo-Frisian area; in mod.WFris. tosk has entirely displaced the OFris. tôth tooth.
On the supposition that the stem is that of Goth. tunþ-us tooth (with -sko suffix), it has been assumed that the OE. forms had a long vowel (túsc, tûx), but of this there is no clear evidence. It is also very doubtful whether the second element in the ON. mythical name Rata-toskr or -tǫskr (a squirrel) can be definitely identified with this word.]
1. A long pointed tooth; esp. a tooth specially developed so as to project beyond the mouth, as in the elephant, wild boar, and various other animals.
A tusk is most frequently a development of a canine tooth, as in the boar and walrus; but it may be an incisor, as in the elephant and narwhal.
a. 900. Laws Ælfred, c. 49. Monnes tux bið xv. scill. weorð.
a. 950[?]. Prose Guthlac, v (Vercelli MS.). Heora teð wæron horses tuxum [v.r. twuxan] ʓelice.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., I. 370. Hundes tux ʓebærned & smale ʓegniden.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 230. Þe wilde bor … is al kareleas of his tuxes.
a. 1225. Juliana, 68. As an burst bar þat grunde his tuskes.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter lvii. 6 [lviii. 6]. Toskes of liouns lauerd breke sal ma.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 742. A wilde bor … Wiþ his toskes he al to-schok.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter lvii. 6. Tuskis of lyons breke sall lord.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 4114. Þai … Tuke out þe tuskis & þe tethe [of elephants].
c. 1470. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 1184, Wks. (S.T.S.), II. 88. Ȝe, Schir Wolf,… with ȝour Tuskis rauenous Hes slane [etc.].
1555. Eden, Decades, 354. These great teeth or tuskes [of the elephant] growe in the vpper iaw downewarde.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 203. To their tusks were fastened long and broad swords, to cut in sunder whatsoeuer stoode in their way.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 387. Boars whet their Tusks.
1841–71. T. R. Jones, Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4), 828. In the Male Narwal … from the intermaxillary bone of the left side of the face there projects a single tusk of great strength, which sometimes attains the length of eight or ten feet.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. III. iii. 101. Several very large tusks of boars or wolves.
1868. Owen, Vertebr. Anim., III. xxix. 369. Teeth … of uninterrupted growth, are called ‘tusks’; such are the incisors of the elephant, narwhal, dinotherium, and dugong, the canines of the boar, walrus, and hippopotamus.
1907. J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, i. 23. The unfortunate jemadar’s head had been left intact, save for the holes made by the lion’s tusks on seizing him.
b. Applied spec. to the permanent canine teeth of a horse. More commonly called tush.
1808. Compl. Grazier, Introd. (ed. 3), 19. Twenty-four grinders,… four tushes or tusks, and twelve foreteeth.
1854. Owen, Skel. & Teeth, in Orr’s Circ. Sc., I. Org. Nat., 285. The permanent canine, or ‘tusk,’ next follows; its appearance indicates the age of four years.
c. Used in contempt for human teeth.
[Cf. quot. 1614 s.v. TUSK v.1 2.]
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 446. He hath the longest Tuskes that euer stroke at Table.
2. A projecting part or object resembling the tusk of an animal. a. Carpentry. A bevel or sloping shoulder on a tenon, for additional strength.
1679. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., viii. 140. They cut a Tusk on the upper side of the Tennant, and let that Tusk into the upper side of the Girders.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 110/2. Tusk, is a Bevel shoulder made to strengthen the Tennant of a Joyst.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 566. In introducing binding joists,… it is necessary, in order to make the tenons sufficiently strong, to have a shorter bearing tenon attached to the principal tenon, with a sloping shoulder above, called a tusk, which term is likewise applied to this tenon, called the tusk tenon.
b. In miscellaneous uses.
1823. Byron, Juan, VII. lxiii. I’ve vow’d … that shortly plough or harrow Shall pass o’er what was Ismail, and its tusk Be unimpeded by the proudest mosque.
1871. G. Macdonald, Songs Days & Nights, Winter Days, IV. ii. Down tusks of ice one drop will go.
1908. 19th Cent., Jan., 128. From the base of this tusk of land the grand river front of new Khartoum stretches.
c. In a lock, ‘A sharp projecting point or claw which forms a means of engagement or attachment’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875).
d. Short for tusk-shell: see 3.
In recent Dicts.
3. attrib. and Comb., as tusk-hunter, -mark; tusk-carrying, -like adjs.; tusk-shell = TOOTH-SHELL; tusk tenon, a tenon made with a tusk (see 2 a); tusk vase, a vase made of an elephant’s tusk, or in imitation of one so made.
1898. Daily News, 28 April, 6/1. Mr. Neumann brought many a procession of *tusk-carrying Zanzibaris to Mombasa…. Carriers of the heaviest tusks are given the post of honour—the van.
1902. Q. Rev., Oct., 418. The *tusk-hunter will not be able to shoot his two elephants in … Kassola.
1876. Huxley, in Nature, 11 May, 33/2. The male horse has a *tusk-like tooth, or canine.
1909. Stacpoole, Pools of Silence, xvii. Above the *tusk marks … could be seen the rubbing mark where great shoulders had scratched themselves.
1861. P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit., 1860, 222. Family Dentaliadæ. (*Tusk-Shells.)
1825. *Tusk tenon [see 2 a].
Hence Tuskish a., resembling a tusk; Tuskwise adv., in the manner of a tusk.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 253. The teeth tuskish-like long.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile, Wks. 1850, I. 72. Ye would perish,—-beast by beast Devouring—tree by tree, with strangling roots And trunks set tuskwise.
1941. Charles Fort, Lo! 81–2. Only one of the seeming tusks is clear in the picture, and it could be, not a tusk, but part of the jaw bone of a whale, propped up tuskwise.
