*smiþaz

Runic: ᛊᛗᛁᚦᚨᛉ Pronunciation: /ˈsmi.θɑz/

noun · masculine · a-stem

Meanings

craftsman, smith

Etymology

Likely related to *smītaną, *smit(t)ōną (‘to strike; to smudge’), but the origin is uncertain. Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (‘to smear, spread’) + *-t-, if the root is cognate with Ancient Greek σμάω (smáō) (smáō, ‘to smear, wipe’), but this comes with formal difficulties and the similarity may well be coincidental. For the semantics, Orel compares Proto-Slavic *kaliti (‘to temper (of metals)’) versus *kalъ (‘dirt’)—though their connection is also disputed—and assumes an intermediate meaning “to dip [metal] into liquid”. Per Kroonen, the suffix may be an agentive tu-stem (see Proto-Indo-European *-tus and Proto-Germanic *-þuz), but no further etymology is given, and the traditional connection with Ancient Greek σμῑ́λη (smī́lē) (smī́lē, ‘knife, chisel’) is formally problematic.

Declension

Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	smiþaz	smiþōz, smiþōs
Acc.	smiþą	smiþanz
Gen.	smiþas, smiþis	smiþǫ̂
Dat.	smiþai	smiþamaz
Inst.	smiþō	smiþamiz
Voc.	smiþ	smiþōz, smiþōs

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Descendants

*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- *smith (Old Dutch)
  - smit (Middle Dutch)
    - smeid, smieëd (Limburgish)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- *smith (Old Dutch)
  - smit (Middle Dutch)
    - smid (Dutch)
      - smid (Afrikaans)
      - shumát (Munsee)
      - smid (Negerhollands)
      - smet, smid (Papiamentu)
      - shëmìt, shmìt (Unami)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- *smith (Old Dutch)
  - smit (Middle Dutch)
    - smid (Dutch)
      - smeti, smitti (Sranan Tongo)
        
        simítima (Saramaccan)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- smiþ (Old English)
  - smyth (Middle English)
    - smith (English)
    - smith, smyth (Scots)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- smith, smeth, smid (Old Frisian)
  - Smid (Saterland Frisian)
  - smid (West Frisian)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- smid (Old High German)
  - smit (Middle High German)
    - Schmid (Alemannic German)
    - ? (Bavarian)
    - Schmied (German)
    - Schmitt (Hunsrik)
    - Schmadd (Luxembourgish)
    - śmejt (Vilamovian)
    - שמיד (shmid) (Yiddish)
*smiþ (Proto-West Germanic)
- smith (Old Saxon)
  - smit, smet, smede (Middle Low German)
    - Smitt, Smidd, Smedd (German Low German)
smiðr (Old Norse)
- smið (Elfdalian)
- smiður (Faroese)
- smiður (Icelandic)
- smed (Norwegian Bokmål)
- smed (Norwegian Nynorsk)
smiðr (Old Norse)
- ? (Old Danish)
  - smed (Danish)
smiðr (Old Norse)
- smiþer (Old Swedish)
  - smed (Swedish)
*𐍃𐌼𐌹𐌸𐌰 (*smiþa) (Gothic)

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