The word for toothpaste in Italian is dentifricio. It comes from the Latin dentifricium, the compilation of dens dentis “tooth” and the verb fricare “to rub”.
Dentifricio is a masculine noun, so it takes the following definite and indefinite articles:
il dentifricio
the toothpaste
un dentifricio
a toothpaste
i dentifrici
the toothpastes
dei dentifrici
(some) toothpastes
Some different kinds of toothpaste include:
- dentifricio al fluoro = fluoride toothpaste
- dentifricio alla menta = spearmint-flavoured toothpaste
- dentifricio alle erbe = herbal-flavoured toothpaste
- dentifricio in polvere = tooth-powder
Questo dentifricio sa di menta!
This toothpaste tastes like mint!
When used as an adjective instead of a noun, it translates as “for cleaning teeth” or “tooth-cleaning”. In fact, an alternative name for toothpaste is pasta dentifricia (quite literally “tooth-cleaning paste”).
A tube of toothpaste is known as un tubetto di dentifricio, with tubetto meaning “little tube”.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
