Etymologically
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smart

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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

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