den·tate
DENtayt /ˈdɛnteɪt/ adjective; also in the anatomical noun dentate gyrus
etymology from Latin dentātus, toothed, from dēns (genitive dentis), tooth. Cognate with dental, dentil, indent, and indenture: a contract cut apart along a toothed line so that each half could prove the other. The root has meant a mark that authenticates for most of recorded law.
- Anatomy of the dentate gyrus: the tooth-edged fold of the hippocampus, one of the only regions of the adult brain that keeps growing new neurons; the gate where experience is separated into distinct, durable memory.
- Computing dentate, the cognition substrate named for it: a personal memory system that grows new records the way the gyrus grows new cells, and holds every one of them in a chain it can prove.
- From the root notched or toothed along an edge, as a leaf or a blade; bearing a mark cut in, not written on, and therefore impossible to smooth away. Hence, of a record: permanent, tamper evident.
why the name carries The category is full of invented syllables and version numbers. dentate arrives with its
meaning pre-installed: the brain structure that forms memory, and a Latin root for the cut that certifies a
document. Nothing to explain twice.