Smart vs Witting - What's the difference?
smart | witting |
To hurt or sting.
* 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
To cause a smart or sting in.
* T. Adams
To feel a pungent pain of mind; to feel sharp pain or grief; to suffer; to feel the sting of evil.
* Alexander Pope
* Bible, Proverbs xi. 15
Causing sharp pain; stinging.
* Shakespeare
Sharp; keen; poignant.
Exhibiting social ability or cleverness.
* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 19
Exhibiting intellectual knowledge, such as that found in books.
(often, in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour.
Good-looking.
Cleverly shrewd and humorous in a way that may be rude and disrespectful.
* Young
* Addison
Sudden and intense.
* Clarendon
* 1860 July 9, Henry David Thoreau, journal entry, from Thoreau's bird-lore'', Francis H. Allen (editor), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, 1910), ''Thoreau on Birds: notes on New England birds from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau , Beacon Press, (Boston, 1993), page 239:
(US, Southern, dated) Intense in feeling; painful. Used usually with the adverb intensifier right .
(archaic) Efficient; vigorous; brilliant.
* Dryden
(archaic) Pretentious; showy; spruce.
(archaic) Brisk; fresh.
A sharp, quick, lively pain; a sting.
Mental pain or suffering; grief; affliction.
* Milton
* Spenser
Smart-money.
(slang, dated) A dandy; one who is smart in dress; one who is brisk, vivacious, or clever.
(obsolete) Knowledge, awareness.
* Late 14th century , Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Wife of Bath's Prologue’ ll. 648-9, Canterbury Tales , Oxford 1988, p. 113:
As a proper noun smart
is .As a noun witting is
(obsolete) knowledge, awareness.As an adjective witting is
aware, knowledgable.As a verb witting is
.smart
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) smerten, from (etyl) .Verb
- After being hit with a pitch, the batter exclaimed "Ouch, my arm smarts !"
- He moved convulsively, and as he did so, said, "I'll be quiet, Doctor. Tell them to take off the strait waistcoat. I have had a terrible dream, and it has left me so weak that I cannot move. What's wrong with my face? It feels all swollen, and it smarts dreadfully."
- A goad that smarts the flesh.
- No creature smarts so little as a fool.
- He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) smart, smarte, smerte, from (etyl) .Adjective
(er)- How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.
- a smart pain
- I always preferred the church, and I still do. But that was not smart' enough for my family. They recommended the army. That was a great deal too ' smart for me.
- smart''' bomb'', '''''smart car
- smart'''card'', '''''smart phone
- a smart outfit
- He became tired of his daughter's sarcasm and smart remarks''.
- Who, for the poor renown of being smart / Would leave a sting within a brother's heart?
- a sentence or two, which I thought very smart
- smart skirmishes, in which many fell
- There is a smart shower at 5 P.M., and in the midst of it a hummingbird is busy about the flowers in the garden, unmindful of it, though you would think that each big drop that struck him would be a serious accident.
- He raised his voice, and it hurt her feelings right smart .
- That cast on his leg chaffs him right smart .
- The stars shine smarter .
- a smart gown
- a smart breeze
Synonyms
* (exhibiting social ability) bright, capable, sophisticated, witty * (exhibiting intellectual knowledge) cultivated, educated, learned, see also * (good-looking) attractive, chic, stylish, handsome * sillyAntonyms
* (exhibiting social ability) backward, banal, boorish, dull, inept * (exhibiting intellectual knowledge) ignorant, uncultivated, simple * (good-looking) garish, , tackyDerived terms
* smart aleck * smart as a whip * smart casual * smart offEtymology 3
From (etyl) smerte, from . More above.Noun
(en noun)- To stand 'twixt us and our deserved smart .
- Counsel mitigates the greatest smart .
- (Fielding)
Anagrams
* * ----witting
English
Etymology 1
Partly from (etyl) vitand, partly from the present participle of (wit).Noun
(-)- for his wyf was at a someres game, / Wiþouten his wityng , he forsook hire eke.