Why are they called "wisdom teeth"?

zbeckabee

They are generally thought to be called "wisdom teeth" because they appear so late—much later than the other teeth, at an age where people are supposedly wiser than as a child, when the other teeth erupt. Alternatively it may be that the term derives from a mistranslation of the corresponding term in Dutch in which language they are called 'verstandskiezen', literally 'far-standing-molars' referring to the fact that they are located at the back of the mouth. In Dutch such compound words are contracted (written without the spaces) leaving the first part of the word as 'verstand' which can correctly be translated as 'wisdom' in English. It is interesting to note that, although the origin of the word is well known, among Dutch speaking layman it has become common to derive the word from verstand (as wisdom), similar to the common English derivation, apparently under infuence from the English language and in modern Belgian (Dutch and French) they are sometimes called wijsheidstand (dents de sagesse) which seems to be a literal translation of the English term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_teeth Jul 18 06, 9:01 AM