blacksmith

Etymology

It is a compound from English black + smith,^[2][3][4][5] in Middle English blaksmith, from blak (“black”) and smith.^[6][7] The smith is called black from his work with iron, known as black metal,^[6][7][8][9] as distinguished from the whitesmith, who worked in tin or other white metal.^[10][4][11] Johnson, in 1755, explained the name instead by the smith being very sooty.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded as a surname, in 1248 in the Close Rolls of Henry III;^[2][12] Etymonline also dates the surname to the mid 13th century.^[4] As the name of a trade, a smith who works in iron, it is recorded from 1483 in the OED of 1989,^[10] while Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford put it in the late 15th century.^[4][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1250–1300.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the original: a smith who makes and repairs iron articles by hand, with a forge and anvil.^[2][7] Etymonline notes that a royal ordinance listed blacksmiths along with bladesmiths, spurriers and goldbeaters, and that they worked in heated, heavy metals, unlike those who beat gold, tin or pewter.^[4] In American use the word also came to mean a smith who shoes horses, a farrier.^[7][13] The OED records blacksmith's shop (in the United States also blacksmith shop) for a smithy from 1752, and blacksmithing from 1830.^[10] In English dialects, from Northumberland and Yorkshire to Somerset, blacksmith was also a verb, to do a blacksmith's work, and the blacksmith's daughter was a padlock.^[14] In slang it has meant a forger (1906), a safebreaker in American criminal slang (1926), and in Australia and New Zealand a bad cook on an outback station (1933), from the tools common to both trades.^[15]

Timeline

• 1248 – as a surname.^[2][12]
• 1483 – a smith who works in iron.^[10][4][3]
• 1752 – blacksmith's shop, a smithy.^[10]
• 1830 – blacksmithing, the work of a blacksmith.^[10]
• 1891 – dialect verb, to work as a blacksmith, in the Leeds Mercury supplement.^[14]
• 1906 – slang, a forger.^[15]
• 1926 – American criminal slang, a safebreaker.^[15]
• 1933 – Australian and New Zealand slang, a bad station cook.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A smith who works iron, heating it in a forge and hammering it into shape on an anvil: The village blacksmith mended the broken gate hinges.^{[7][16][13][2]}
2. A smith who makes and fits horseshoes; a farrier.^[7][13]

Word family

• blacksmithing

Related words

• gunsmith
• smith
• smithy
• whitesmith
• goldsmith
• black

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins