Is there legitimate, substantiated history behind our third set of molars for having the name wisdom teeth?

Question

Really...? Fun answers are fine, as long as there is real info to substantiate like links, books, articles, etc. Thanks ahead for your time and research!

Answer 1

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 presumably wiser than as a child, when the other teeth erupt. The English wisdom tooth is derived from Latin dens sapientiae. The same root is shared by numerous other languages. There exists an interesting Dutch folk etymology that the Dutch word verstandskies is derived from "far-standing" (ver-staand) molar, and that mistranslations of the Dutch word (in which verstand translates to wisdom) are the root for corresponding words in other European languages.

Turkish refers directly to the age at which wisdom teeth appear and calls it 20 yaş dişi (20th year tooth). In Arabic, its name is Ders-al-a'qel (ضرس العقل), literally meaning "The tooth of the mind" and hence similar to occidental names. In Korean, its name is Sa-rang-nee (사랑니, love teeth) referring to the young age and the pain of the first love. In Japanese, its name is Oyashirazu (親知らず), literally meaning "unknown to the parents," from the idea that they erupt after a child has moved away. The Indonesian term gigi bungsu for the latest teeth a person cuts refers to bungsu "youngest child". In Thailand the wisdom tooth is described fan-khut (ฟันคุด) "huddling tooth" due to its shortage of place.