smart

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Intelligent and clever.

   She is smart enough to solve the problem on her own.

2. 2
   adj

   Using computer technology to behave intelligently.

   He controls the lights in his house with a smart phone app.

3. 3
   verb

   To feel a sharp, stinging pain.

   The cut on my hand smarted when I washed it.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Smart first appeared in Old English as a verb meaning “be painful,” from a root probably related to Latin mordere, “to bite.” The adjective originally meant “causing sharp pain,” then developed the senses “keen” or “brisk,” from which came the modern meanings “clever” and “neat or well turned out.”

From Middle English smert, smart, from Old English smeart (“smarting, smart, painful”), from Proto-West Germanic *smart, from Proto-Germanic *smartaz (“hurting, aching”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)merd- (“to bite, sting”). Cognate with Scots smert (“painful, smart”), Old Frisian smert (“sharp, painful”).

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary