MILK TEETH
Wild Word Friday!
Do you remember those days when you wiggled and poked and prodded at that loose MILK TOOTH until finally, finally it came out? That night you put it under your pillow, and the next morning the tooth was gone. In its place was a dime or a quarter, depending on the tooth fairy’s mood and pocketbook. I hear that nowadays the tooth fairy leaves a dollar. She’s getting generous in her old age!
My friend Jackie Doran emailed me a couple of weeks ago about an expression her Irish sister-in-law mentioned. Jackie is multi-lingual, so she’s been a great source of ideas for our Wild Word Fridays. Jackie wrote, “[My sister-in-law and I] were talking about our youngest daughters losing their baby teeth and growing in new ones. She told me that in Northern Ireland they call it, ‘who kissed your teeth out?‘”
What a great expression!
Jackie also mentioned that in The Netherlands, people use the expression MILK TEETH. Here in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula I have also heard the older people in our community say MILK TEETH, not only in reference to their children’s baby teeth, but also when they speak about the teeth of kittens or puppies. In my family, we said first teeth, but I believe in most of the United States people say baby teeth.
Q4U: Have you ever used the expression who kissed your teeth out in reference to baby teeth? What expression does your family use? Did the tooth fairy come to your house?