Perhaps borrowed from a South Arabian Arabic term for dam, barrier, which may resemble an incisor in its shape: Daṯina maḍlaˁah ‘digue, vanne’, North Yemeni maḍlaˁ ‘Terrasse am Fuße eines Berges’. The word goes back to the ancient South Arabian lore, cf. Sab. mṣ̂lˁ ‘type of low stone barrage’.