Forms: see TOOTH sb. and ACHE sb.; also 4–7 -ake, 6 Sc. -aike, -ȝaik, 7–9 -ach. An ache or continuous pain in a tooth or the teeth. (As a malady, commonly the tooth ache down to 19th c. See THE 8.)
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XX. 81. Coughes, and cardiacles, crampes, and tothaches.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, ix. 215. The Kyng … sayd he had the tooth ache.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 321. The phtiseik, þe twithȝaik [v.r. toothaike], þe tittis, and þe tirrillis.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. ii. 21. I haue the tooth-ach. Ibid., V. i. 36. There was neuer yet Philosopher, That could endure the tooth-ake patiently.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. Disc. xvi. 56. Some persons used certain verses of the psalter as an antidote against tooth-ach.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 7, ¶ 4. She lay ill of the Tooth-ach.
a. 1774. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 581. Engaged at home by a violent toothache.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 221. A charm for the tooth-ach.
1887. Times, 26 Aug., 7/4. All that is the matter with him is a fit of toothache.
b. attrib., usually denoting something used as a remedy for toothache, as toothache spell, tincture; toothache-grass, a N. American grass (Ctenium americanum) having a very pungent taste; toothache-tree, (a) name for several N. American species of the genus Xanthoxylon, having pungent aromatic fruit, esp. X. fraxineum, also called prickly ash; (b) the similar N. American Aralia spinosa, also called angelica-tree.
1616. Sylvester, Tobacco Battered, 655. It is but like some of our Tooth-ake Spells, Which for the present seem to ease the Pain.
1730. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 428. Zanthoxylum spinosum,… the Pellitory or Tooth-ach Tree.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Tooth-ache Tree, a common name for the tree Aralia spinosa.
1860. Worcester, Toothache-grass.
Hence Toothachy a. (colloq.), affected with toothache. So Tooth-aching, aching of the teeth, toothache.
1709. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 7. 3/2. I was taken With a vi’lent Tooth-aching.
1838. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), II. 269. Toothachy and tired, I have been writing this letter.
1900. Elinor Glyn, Visits Elizabeth (1906), 72. That is how she got the toothachy look.
