smother

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle English smorther (“dense, stifling smoke”), early smorðer,^[2][3][4] from Old English smorian (“to suffocate, choke, strangle”), formed from its stem with a suffix.^[4][3][5][6] The verb, smortheren and then smotheren, is from the noun;^[7][4][8] Barnhart finds it about 1200 in the present participle smeorthrinde.^[9] The spelling without the first r is recorded about 1300,^[9] and Barnhart puts the loss down either to the shortening of the first vowel or to dissimilation.^[9] The Old English verb survives in dialect as smore.^[3][10][4] It is cognate with Middle Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, stew”), Dutch smoren and Middle Low German smōren, the source of German schmoren (“to stew”),^{[3][9][11][12]} and West Frisian smoarje;^[4] Wiktionary traces them to Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to suffocate, strangle”),^[1][13] whose further origin is unknown.^[13][3] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest a link with smolder.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dense, suffocating smoke: about 1175, in the Lambeth Homilies, describing the smoke of hell.^[4][2] The verb, to suffocate with smoke, is first found before 1200, in the life of Saint Margaret.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English noun meant smoke, especially noxious or suffocating smoke, often in the phrase smoke and smother.^[2][4] Shakespeare used it so in As You Like It: "Thus must I from the smoke into the smother".^[14][15] From 1597 it also meant a smouldering state or a slow fire, and after 1697 also a thick cloud of dust or fog; later senses were a welter of foam or water (1840) and a wild mass of flowers (1888).^[4] The verb widened from killing with smoke to killing by any stopping of the breath, a sense recorded in 1548.^[4][9][5] Putting out a fire by covering it followed before 1591, and the figurative uses grew from both: to hush up a matter (1579, obsolete by 1752), to hold back a feeling (1594), to keep something from developing (Shakespeare's Macbeth) and to muffle words (1601).^[4][9][5] From 1676 the verb also described overwhelming someone with affection, as with kisses;^[4] since 1707 it has also meant cooking in a closed vessel, the source of dishes smothered in a sauce or onions.^[4][16][17] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "a state of suppression" and "smoke; thick dust", quoting Bacon and Dryden.^[15] Sport added a cricket sense, to stop a ball by covering it with the bat (1845), and a rugby tackle that pins the opponent's arms (1920).^[4] In dialect the verb meant to smoulder (Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire) or to splash with mud, and a Wiltshire smother was a garden rubbish fire.^[17] In British underworld slang a smother is an overcoat, from 1900.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – noun, dense, suffocating smoke.^[4][2]
• before 1200 – verb, to suffocate with smoke.^[4][9]
• 1548 – to kill by stopping the breath.^[4][9]
• 1579 – to hush up a matter (obsolete by 1752).^[4][9]
• before 1591 – to put out a fire by covering it.^[4][5]
• 1594 – to hold back a feeling.^[4]
• 1597 – noun, a smouldering state or fire.^[4]
• 1676 – to overwhelm, as with kisses or a crushing victory.^[4]
• 1697 – noun, thick dust or fog filling the air.^[4][19]
• 1707 – to cook in a closed vessel.^[4]
• 1840 – noun, a welter of foam or water.^[4]
• 1920 – in rugby, to tackle by smothering the opponent.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To kill or nearly kill by cutting off the air; to suffocate: The fumes almost smothered the miners.^[16][7][4]
2. To put out a fire by covering it so that no air reaches it.^[16][7][4]
3. To hold back or suppress a feeling or sound: He smothered a laugh.^[16][4]
4. To cover thickly, or surround with too much of something: His grandmother smothered him with attention.^[16][7][4]
5. To cook or serve food thickly covered, as with a sauce or onions.^[16][4]
6. In rugby and other sports, to tackle an opponent or stop a ball by covering it.^[4][20]

Noun

1. Thick, stifling smoke, dust or fog.^[7][4][16]
2. A mass or turmoil of something, such as foam, spray or flowers.^[16][4]
3. (archaic) A smouldering state or fire.^[16][4]

Word family

• smothery
• smotherable
• unsmothered

Related words

• smore
• smolder
• smoulder

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ 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.
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers