英语词汇cut one-s eyeteeth的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

cut one’s eyeteeth; wisdom teeth. The eyeteeth are those di- rectly under the eye, the long, pointed canines that are cut at 14 to 20 months for the first set and at 11 to 12 years of age for the second set. To cut one’s eyeteeth means “to acquire wisdom and become worldly,” because the permanent set is acquired when a child is passing into young adulthood. It is usually said in the negative, as in he hasn’t cut his eyeteeth yet. The expression was used by Haliburton’s Sam Slick in 1837 and Emerson after him, but is British in origin, dating back to the early 1700s, when it was to have one’s eyeteeth. Eyeteeth commonly referred to the canine teeth of dogs and other animals long before this, so the phrase may have been suggested by the fact that fighting dogs were considered dangerous to handle when they developed their eyeteeth. Actually, the words better describe the emer- gence from infancy or childhood than they do the acquiring of wisdom. If wisdom does come with age, to cut one’s wisdom teeth is more appropriate, for these are cut at the ages of 17 to 25 and up to age 50! These molars have been known as dentes sapientiae, “teeth of wisdom,” since the time of Hippocrates.

词汇	cut one-s eyeteeth
词源	cut one’s eyeteeth; wisdom teeth. The eyeteeth are those di- rectly under the eye, the long, pointed canines that are cut at 14 to 20 months for the first set and at 11 to 12 years of age for the second set. To cut one’s eyeteeth means “to acquire wisdom and become worldly,” because the permanent set is acquired when a child is passing into young adulthood. It is usually said in the negative, as in he hasn’t cut his eyeteeth yet. The expression was used by Haliburton’s Sam Slick in 1837 and Emerson after him, but is British in origin, dating back to the early 1700s, when it was to have one’s eyeteeth. Eyeteeth commonly referred to the canine teeth of dogs and other animals long before this, so the phrase may have been suggested by the fact that fighting dogs were considered dangerous to handle when they developed their eyeteeth. Actually, the words better describe the emer- gence from infancy or childhood than they do the acquiring of wisdom. If wisdom does come with age, to cut one’s wisdom teeth is more appropriate, for these are cut at the ages of 17 to 25 and up to age 50! These molars have been known as dentes sapientiae, “teeth of wisdom,” since the time of Hippocrates.
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