Etymograph

English

smart

Smart comes from Old English smeart ‘smarting, painful’, from Proto-Germanic *smartaz ‘hurting’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- ‘to bite, sting’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)merd-‘to bite, sting’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smartaz‘hurting, aching’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smartreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150smeart‘smarting, painful’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smert
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1611smart

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)merd-‘to bite, sting’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smartaz‘hurting, aching’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smartreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150smeart‘smarting, painful’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smert
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1611smart

Earliest quotation: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “He that is ſurety for a ſtranger ſhall ſmart…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- ‘to bite, sting’

remorse, morsel, mordant, 6 more

Another origin of smart

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)merd-‘to bite, sting’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smartaz‘hurting, aching’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smartreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150smeart‘smarting, smart, painful’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smert‘painful, hurtful, punishing, injurious’
  6. Englishtodaysmart

Another origin of smart

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)merd-‘to sting, bite’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smertaną‘to hurt’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smertan‘to hurt, to smart’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150*smeortan‘to smart’reconstructed
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smerten‘to smart’
  6. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500smerte‘harm, pain, injury’
  7. Englishtodaysmart

Today it means

verb To hurt or sting.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- / smart

Shirt and support for this word