Where does “outsmart” come from?
Outsmart comes from English out- combined with smart, which derives from Middle English smerten, from Old English smeortan, from Proto-Germanic smertaną meaning to pain or sting, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)merd-.
outsmart (English): To beat in a competition of wits
Definitions
- To beat in a competition of wits
Ancestry of “outsmart”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | out- | External to, on the outside of; Toward the... |
| 2 | Romanian | -uț | Forms masculine diminutives of nouns and... |
| 3 | Latin | -utus | — |
| 4 | Latin | -tus | Forms the past participle of verbs; Forms... |
| 5 | Proto-Italic | -tus | — |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -tus | Derives action nouns from verb roots |
Words derived from “outsmart”