Or how to refer to it. (noun, verb, etc.) You've just bitten into an unripe fruit. The acidic, green nature of the fruit has the effect of somehow changing your saliva, cutting its slippery quality (I assume by breaking the long protein chains). Suddenly the inside of your mouth doesn't work as it should. You can't get the bit you've chewed back to swallow it. The backs of your teeth feel like they've been cleaned with acid and the frictional power of your tongue is enough to make it catch and stutter like rubber over a smooth surface. In Spanish we have a word for this, amarrar, which means to tie, but that doesn't work because tied in relationship to the mouth has a known and very different meaning in English. Or... is that perhaps the right word and I've just never heard it used that way? Anyone?
Are you looking for one word to describe biting full force into a peeled lemon, face scrunched like a crumpled apple, head vibrating seeing water through slits for eyes. Show us the context with the blank and maybe...
No context. :redface: It just happened to me in real life with a carambola I picked from the tree down at the end of the woods on the property. It was to be part of my breakfast. When it happened, I thought, ugh, not again, and realized I don't know a word or term for this phenomenon in English, but I do in Spanish. Certain hard salami will do this same thing to your palate and when you buy them here in the store, the ones that won't have a little sticker that says no amarra, or won't tie [your palate]. Is that perhaps the way to say say it? The fruit wasn't ripe and it tied my palate.
I know exactly what you're talking about... It's like your mouth is suddenly puffy inside and full of fur. I can't think of how to explain it any better though... Interesting that there is a phrase for it in spanish, but not english... Language is a strange thing.
in translation's business (although your case would be the opposite), in this situation to translate from foreign language which have no correct or close enough word to describe, there are 2 choices: -explain in a few words -create a new word (could be confusing to reader and have to be explained at bottom of page) just my 2 cents
Even Russian has a phrase to describe this unique phenomenon, Набить oскомину, but I still struggle to find one for English....
Cotton mouth seems to be the closest approximation that I can think of in terms of a common colloquialism. Generally the phrase is associated with parching, but it is akin to what you have described.
I don't think we have a word that directly describes it. But would you say it makes your mouth clammy? Or your throat/saliva thick?
