wisdom tooth

wisdom tooth

English

Etymology

From wisdom +‎ tooth, calque of Latin dēns sapientiae, which is itself a calque of Ancient Greek σωφρονιστῆρες (sōphronistêres, “prudent or self-controlled ones (i.e. teeth)”), because they arrive approximately when one has reached the age of prudence or wisdom.[1] Compare also German Weisheitszahn (“wisdom tooth”), Danish visdomstand (“wisdom tooth”), Swedish visdomstand (“wisdom tooth”), Icelandic vísdómstönn (“wisdom tooth”), Dutch verstandskies (“wisdom tooth”, literally “intellect molar”), German Low German Verstandskuus (“wisdom tooth”, literally “wisdom molar”). Chinese 智齒／智齿 (zhìchǐ), Russian зуб мудрости (zub mudrosti), Hebrew שן בינה‎ (shen biná) and Finnish viisaudenhammas also mean “tooth of wisdom”.

Noun

wisdom tooth (plural wisdom teeth)

1. (dentistry) One of the four (one upper and one lower on each side) rearmost molars in humans, which typically develop between ages 18-24.

Translations

rearmost molar in humans

Arabic: ضِرْس اَلْعَقْل‎ m (ḍirs al-ʿaql) Egyptian Arabic: ضرس العقل‎ m (ḍers el-ʿaʾl) Armenian: իմաստության ատամ (imastutʿyan atam) Belarusian: зуб му́драсці m (zub múdrasci) Bulgarian: мъдре́ц (bg) m (mǎdréc) Burmese: အံဆုံး (my) (amhcum:) Catalan: queixal del seny (ca) m Cebuano: pamuok Chinese: Cantonese: 智慧齒, 智慧齿 (zi3 wai3 ci2) Mandarin: 智齒／智齿 (zh) (zhìchǐ), 智牙 (zh) (zhìyá) Min Nan: 智齒, 智齿 (tì-khí), 後齻 (zh-min-nan), 后齻 (āu-chan) Czech: zub moudrosti m, moudrák m (colloquial) Danish: visdomstand (da) c Dhivehi: އެންމެ އެތެރެ ކޮލުދަތް‎ (en̊me etere koludat̊) Dutch: verstandskies (nl) m, (Belgium) wijsheidstand (nl) m Esperanto: saĝodento Estonian: tarkusehammas Faroese: vísdómsjakslur m Finnish: viisaudenhammas (fi) French: dent de sagesse (fr) f Galician: moa do siso f, moa do xuízo f Georgian: სიბრძნის კბილი (sibrʒnis ḳbili) German: Weisheitszahn (de) m Greek: φρονιμίτης (el) m (fronimítis), σωφρονιστήρας (el) m (sofronistíras) Ancient: σωφρονιστήρ m (sōphronistḗr) Hebrew: שֵׁן בִּינָה‎ f (shen biná) Hindi: अकल दाढ़ (akal dāṛh), तीसरे दाढ़ (tīsre dāṛh) Hungarian: bölcsességfog (hu) Icelandic: endajaxl m, vísdómstönn (is) f, geirjaxl m Ido: dento di sajeso (io) Indonesian: gigi bungsu (id) Irish: fiacail forais f Italian: dente del giudizio m Japanese: 親知らず (おやしらず, oya-shirazu) Kazakh: ақыл тіс (aqyl tıs) Khmer: ថ្គាមទាល់ (thkiəm tŏəl), ក្រាមទាល់ (km) (kraam tŏəl) Korean: 사랑니 (ko) (sarangni) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: didanê aqilî, diranê jîrî m Ladino: muela de sehel Latin: dēns sapientiae m Latvian: gudrības zobs m Lithuanian: protinis dantis m Macedonian: у́мник m (úmnik) Malagasy: faravazana (mg) Malay: gigi bongsu (ms) Malayalam: വിവേകദന്തങ്ങൾ (vivēkadantaṅṅaḷ) Maori: niho pū Norman: dent d'sagesse f Norwegian: visdomstann m Persian: دندان عقل‎ Plautdietsch: Weisheitstän f Polish: ząb mądrości (pl) m, ósemka (pl) Portuguese: siso (pt) m, dente do siso (pt) m, dente do juízo m Romanian: măsea de minte (ro) f Russian: зуб му́дрости (ru) m (zub múdrosti) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: у̑мња̄к m Roman: ȗmnjāk (sh) m Slovak: zub múdrosti m Slovene: modrostni zob m Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: slězny crjonak m Spanish: muela del juicio f, cordal f, muela cordal f Swedish: visdomstand (sv) c Tagalog: bagang-bait, ngipin ng karunungan Tamil: ஞானப்பல் (ta) (ñāṉappal) Thai: ฟันกรามซี่สุดท้าย Tigrinya: ኩርምቲ ሓይሊ (kurməti ḥayli) Turkish: akıl dişi (tr), akıldişi (tr), yirmilik diş (tr) Ukrainian: зуб му́дрості m (zub múdrosti) Uyghur: ئەقىل چىش‎ (eqil chish) Vietnamese: răng khôn (vi) Welsh: dant helbul m, dant gofid m Yakut: билир тиис (bilir tiis) Yiddish: חכמה־צאָן‎ m (khokhme-tson)

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “wisdom tooth”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.