smart

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /smɑːt/, US /smɑːrt/^[1]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English smerten, inherited from Old English smeortan (“to be painful”),^[2][3] from Proto-Germanic *smertanan,^[3] the source also of Middle Dutch smerten, Dutch smarten and Old High German smerzan (German schmerzen) “to pain”.^[2][3] Outside Germanic it is perhaps related to Latin mordēre “to bite” and Greek smerdnós “terrible”,^[3][4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *smerd-,^[3] an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to rub away, harm”).^[2] The adjective is late inherited from Old English smeart (“stinging, causing sharp pain”), related to the verb;^[2][3] it has no match in the related languages.^[2] The noun, “sharp pain”, is cognate with German Schmerz.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb: Old English smeortan, before 899, in Alfred's Orosius;^[3] Middle English smerten, “to cause grief”, is from about 1150.^[3] The adjective, of blows, “stinging”, is from before 1023.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Of speech, “harsh, hurtful”, is from about 1300,^[2] which led to “pert, impudent” by the 1630s.^[2] “Quick, active, brisk” is from about 1303,^[3] and “clever, quick at learning” from 1628,^[3] perhaps from the idea of cutting wit or of keenness in bargaining.^[2] The original sense of the adjective, “causing sharp pain”, thus led to “keen, brisk” and then to “mentally sharp” and “neat in appearance”.^[5][6] “Fashionably elegant” is from 1716 in Barnhart^[3] and 1718 in cant in Etymonline;^[2] Weekley remarked that it rose from the kitchen to the drawing room about 1880.^[2] The sense development is like that of sharp.^[2] Of devices, “behaving as if intelligent”, as in smart bomb, is by 1972,^[2] and smart cookie by 1926.^[2] Smarts, “intelligence”, is from about 1970.^[2][7]

Timeline

• before 899 – verb, to be painful.^[3]
• before 1023 – adjective, stinging.^[3]
• c. 1303 – quick, brisk.^[3]
• 1628 – clever.^[3]
• 1630s – impudent.^[2]
• 1716 – stylish, neat.^[3]
• 1926 – smart cookie.^[2]
• 1972 – of devices, intelligent.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Quick to think and learn; clever.
2. Neat and stylish in appearance; fashionable.
3. Witty, or in an impertinent way: don't get smart with me.
4. Quick, brisk: a smart pace.
5. Of a device, automated and able to act as if intelligent: a smart phone.

Verb

1. To cause or feel a sharp stinging pain.
2. To feel hurt or distress: still smarting from the defeat.

Noun

1. A sharp stinging pain.
2. smarts (informal) Intelligence.

Word family

• smartly
• smartness
• smartingly
• smartweed
• outsmart
• smarten
• smart-mouthed
• smartish

Related words

• smart aleck
• mordant
• remorse

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press