Learn English – How did “sweet tooth” originate

etymology

Given it's nearly Easter, I was eating some fruity Jelly Beans (I had forgotten how good they are) and my Indian friend said that he loved them because he had "sweet teeth".

I corrected him, saying 'for reference we'd usually say, "I have a sweet tooth"', but I couldn't think of a reason why besides convention.

I found it in some old books from the 17th century, but some other sites claim it comes from the 14th century.

I realize the term refers to a person's fondness towards sweet tasting foods, but how did it start to be so? And how come it's not plural?

Best Answer

From an idiomatic perspective, the expression was coined during the Middle Ages with the simple combination of two common terms. The second term, tooth, was already used idiomatically meaning 'taste, liking'.

Sweet tooth (n.) :

  • "fondness for sugary stuff," late 14c., from sweet (adj.) + tooth in the sense of "taste, liking" (see toothsome).

Toothsome: (adj.):

  • pleasant to the taste," 1560s, from -some (1) + tooth in a figurative sense of "appetite, taste, liking" attested from late 14c. (compare sweet tooth, also figurative use of palate). The extended sense of "attractive" (1550s) is attested earlier.

(Etymonline)

From a scientific perspective the origin of our perception of sweet vs bitter tastes has a much older story:

The Evolutionary Origins of the Sweet Tooth

  • The evolutionary explanation for the sweet tooth revolved around that idea that we have physiologically associated a sweet taste with high-energy foods which would have helped our earliest ancestors survive better in their environment (getting more “bang-for-the-buck”….if an individual has to spend time and effort foraging for food, it’s better to obtain energy-dense food items than energy-poor food items). When one considers our ability to taste, our ability to perceive “sweet” is relatively weak, while our ability to perceive “bitter” is generally considered much stronger (in fact, the strongest of our taste reception, on average). Perception of “bitter” is thought to be an evolutionary strategy of quickly identifying plants that contain potentially harmful toxins (produced as secondary plant compounds). Thus, evolving a low tolerance to “bitter” and a high tolerance to “sweet”‘ might have promoted our ancestors to actively seek out sweet tasting foods.

(Interview at The Smithsonian, evolutionary biologist Jason Cryan )

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