![]() To lose them would cause one to be severely hampered, not merely in eating but in everyday affairs. The association with eyes results in an even more powerful evocation. These suggest that eye teeth are especially valuable, because they figuratively embody hard-learned skills and one’s experience of life. If you’re cutting your eye teeth (or just teeth) on something you’re gaining experience in a situation you’re new to. To say that somebody has cut his eye teeth means he’s wide awake and isn’t easily fooled. If only you were asking about cut one’s eye teeth or cut one’s teeth, I could respond at once by pointing out that the eye teeth are among the last of a baby’s first set of teeth to appear and so to cut them (have them emerge from the gums) implies that babyhood is in effect over. Why people seize on eye teeth as a dramatic way to indicate their longing for something is harder to get a grip on. Here is an attempt at explaining why people are eager to give even their eye teeth for something they truly desire We can see the phrase has changed slightly from preferring to give your eye teeth than give/lose money to the modern giving your eye teeth for something you really want. Once in Congressional Globe says:Īnd again in Register of Debates in Congress:įrom The Town and Country Magazine, or Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction, and Entertainment of 1779: Denny on Wednesday, 17th December 1834 in Congress and recorded in two sources. 1836's The Way-Mark: In Which Some of the Turns of the Broad Road are Pointed Out says:Ī variant rather have their eye-teeth drawn was said by a Mr. ![]() ![]() The earliest "give/gave eye-teeth" is illuminating. You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. You have heard that it was said to the ancients, Do not murder and Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. The earliest I found is in the fascinating 1657 Nature's Cabinet Unlock'd by Thomas Browne:Īnd the 1660 Lexicon Tetraglotton, an English-French-Italian-Spanish Dictionary by James Howell shows the translations all include eye: You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot. The term eye teeth goes back to at least the 17th century. In humans, the upper canine teeth (popularly called eye teeth, from their position under the eyes) are larger and longer than the lower, and usually present a distinct basal ridge. In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dogteeth, fangs, or (in the case of those of the upper jaw) eye teeth, are relatively long, pointed teeth. I had thought the term was hind teeth as well, but eye teeth it is.
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