…and are there any traditions associated with them?
*Baby teeth being the teeth that a small child has when she first sprouts teeth, which then fall out to make room for adult teeth. Here in the US a lot of parents teach their kids that the “Tooth Fairy” will bring purchase the kid’s tooth if the tooth is left under a pillow.
UK. Milk teeth - and the tooth fairy collects them from under the pillow.
Why “milk teeth”?
My WAG: Because once the tot gets them, it’s time to get her off milk and onto solids (particularly if her mamma is nursing her).
It’s the same with Finland - “maitohampaat” directly translates to milk teeth. I think I got 1 FIM for mine back in the day, maybe the going rate is 1 EUR nowadays.
It’s milk teeth in French too (dents de lait), you put it under your pillow and at night the Petite Souris (the little mouse) comes and gets it, replacing it with a coin.
Growing up I used to keep my milk teeth in a small heart-shaped ceramic box adorned with a white mouse.
It’s “milk teeth” in all the three Scandinavian languages, too:
DK: Mælketender
NO: Melketenner
SE: Mjölktänder
However, my children didn’t put them under the pillow. They put them in a glass of water on the nightstand. The next morning, the tooth fairy had replaced it with a 10 kroner coin. However, the rate may have increased slightly since my children lost theirs.
Our family always called them “baby teeth” (I’m in New Zealand). The Tooth Fairy came for them when I was a kid, but I’m not really sure if s/he continues to visit families nowadays.
Dientes de leche, which also translates to milk teeth.
El ratoncito Pérez (the little mouse called Pérez) is our version of the tooth fairy, he comes to pick them up from under your pillow when they’ve fallen off an leaves some money. The Nephew is being very careful with his baby teeth right now, because he swallowed the third one and that meant no money! For my own generation, the mouse came only for the first tooth.
Canadian. same as US.
Răng sữa in Vietnam, meaning milk teeth.
“Milchzähne” in German, meaning, you guessed it, milk teeth. I think the first time I heard about the tooth fairy was in a Simpsons episode, it’s not a tradition here, and I’m not aware of any other except for some parents and/or children keeping their fallen out teeth in a box.
Wait. Is “milk teeth” not used in US English? I call them both “baby teeth” and “milk teeth.”
I call them baby teeth in humans, and milk teeth in other mammals. But I have only picked up that usage of milk teeth from reading books about mammals (where “baby teeth” might look too informal), so the distinction may have nothing to do with my culture.
I’m starting to think the question should be rephrased to “in what languages other than English are baby teeth called something other than ‘milk teeth’?” The amount of agreement is staggering.
How come so many cultures have a mouse as their Tooth Fairy?
Yup - UK here and I’d say either milk teeth or baby teeth. I don’t know how common the latter usage is.
Baby teeth most often, milk teeth occasionally. USA.
I’ve heard both ‘milk’ and ‘baby’ teeth used.
In this part of the word the tooth fairy seems to prefer collecting the tooth from a glass of water on the bedside table.
The Tooth Fairy’s a bit of an anomaly, when you think about it. Most European superstition that I know of assumes the importance of keeping discarded body parts (cut hair, nail clippings etc) out of the hands of supernatural creatures, lest they use them to gain control over you, or harm you in some way.
And yet here we are inviting her in to take possession of bits of our precious children – the very ones traditionally most at risk from faerie attack. Presumably she dates from after fairies’ Victorian re-invention as twee, twinkly Tinkerbell types, as opposed to the uncanny, fay child-snatchers of legend.
I think that if, for whatever reason, you don’t have a fairy collecting the teeth (but still want them taken by something), then your options are maybe a bit limited. Insects and spiders are too small (and too icky) to plausibly spirit away a tooth; cats and dogs are too big and too clumsy; birds in the house are often considered bad luck, and even if they aren’t, you wouldn’t want one flapping and fluttering around the bedroom. Bats don’t bear thinking about, and I doubt most children would sleep well if they were expecting a visit from a snake.
That more-or-less leaves us with rats and mice, I think, and who wants a rat by the baby’s bed?
Apart from the Scots, apparently, who seem to have a white fairy rat for the purpose.
Australian - same childhood ritual and fairytale.