'dent' originates from French, specifically the word 'dent', where the original meaning was 'tooth'.

'dent' changed from Old French 'dent' (from Latin 'dens') and was borrowed into Middle English, developing the sense of a 'notch' or 'indentation' (by comparison to a tooth's mark) and later used as both noun and verb.

Initially, it meant 'tooth' in French/Latin contexts, but over time it evolved into the English sense of a 'notch' or 'indentation' and then into the verb meaning 'to cause such an indentation'; the figurative sense 'to reduce or impair' developed later.