Where does “smarte” come from?
smarte (Middle English) comes from Old English smeart, from Proto-Germanic smartaz, from Proto-Indo-European (s)merd- — to bite, to sting.
Ancestry of “smarte”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old English | smeart | painful, smarting; first/third-person singular... |
| 2 | Proto-Germanic | smartaz | painful, hurting, aching |
| 3 | Proto-Indo-European | (s)merd- | to bite, to sting |