It's from Greek σωφρονιστήρ /sophonister/ through Latin (dens sapientiae). It's been "Wisdom tooth" all along. The story goes that these teeth appear approximately at the age where one becomes "wise."
Ha. Few of the people whose wisdom teeth came and went (painfully) are wise already. Increased life spans and all that…
Then again, sophos does not just mean wise in Greek, but also just clever, cunning, or prudent. ;-)
Absolutely. Folk etymology is actually a productive process; in the literature, you'll also read "reanalysis", as in, a word's components which are not understood are reanalysed as something familiar. Compare English "sparrowgrass" — asparagus, or bridegroom, where groom is originally "gome", meaning "man" in Old English, and not "groom" in the modern (i.e. Early-Modern-English) sense.
The translation of Zeug, and especially -zeug is contentious. Stuff, gear, tool, utility, means. There are many ways in which it is used in German: Flugzeug, something that flies (or that you use to fly with); but Schwimmzeug is not a boat. Instead it means the "stuff" you need to go swimming, like goggles and a swimsuit. Schlagzeug (Schlag: beat) is neither something you use to hit somebody with, nor all the things you need in order to go a-hitting. It's a drum kit.
Your etymology to Eichhörnchen is a folk etymology. It's a diminuitive of the Old High German "eihhorno", which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic " * aikwernô". The root of "Hörnchen" is thus _not_ "Horn", but Proto-Indo-European " * wer-", which just means "squirrel." Its other meaning is "to heed, to notice." I guess people thought squirrels to be excessively observant creatures. Latin "viverra" (ferret) is also related, and Czech "veverka" (squirrel.)
Also, "Eich" has nothing to do with "Oak." Instead, it derives from PIE " * aig-" which means "to move quickly."
EDIT: HN's pseudo-markdown formatting is a plague unto mankind. The hoops I had to jump through to prefix an asterisk to a word…
It's from Greek σωφρονιστήρ /sophonister/ through Latin (dens sapientiae). It's been "Wisdom tooth" all along. The story goes that these teeth appear approximately at the age where one becomes "wise."
Ha. Few of the people whose wisdom teeth came and went (painfully) are wise already. Increased life spans and all that…
Then again, sophos does not just mean wise in Greek, but also just clever, cunning, or prudent. ;-)