My grandson is scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed and when talking about it, I wondered about the origin of the term. I mean why are they called that? They obviously don't make you smarter if you keep them or dumber if they are removed. Right?
As often happens with me -- I found that a bit of research was necessary to satisfy my curiosity, and what I found out is not at all exciting. The term wisdom teeth originates in ancient Greece. Doesn't everything? It simply means that that they are teeth you get when you are older and supposedly wiser. Really? You get them usually between the ages of 17 and 25. I guess in ancient Greece that was quite old considering that life expectancy was 25 during the Roman empire which came after the decline of ancient Greece.
Get this -- by the middle ages life expectancy rose to 33. By the early 1900's it was up to 55 and today in the United States life expectancy is almost 80. Wow! Makes me tired to think about it. My, how things have changed.
I figure at almost 75 I must have moved beyond wise into the next level, at least in the perspective of ancient Greece. Not sure what that is exactly, but I do know that I will need my glasses to read about it.
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