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smith

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • //smɪθ//

A craftsperson who works metal into desired forms using a hammer and other tools, sometimes heating the metal to make it more workable, especially a blacksmith.

noun

  1. 1

    A craftsperson who works metal into desired forms using a hammer and other tools, sometimes heating the metal to make it more workable, especially a blacksmith.

    The smiths themselves were a grand lot of fellows, full of a robust, and sometimes Rabelaisian sense of humour, and between "heats," they could be most entertaining.

  2. 2

    One who makes anything; wright.

  3. 3

    archaicAn artist.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *smiþaz Proto-West Germanic *smiþ Old English smiþ Middle English smyth English smith From Middle English smeth, smith, smiþ, smið, smyth, smythe, smyþ, smyþe, from Old English smiþ, from Proto-West Germanic *smiþ, from Proto-Germanic *smiþaz (“smith”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to smear, spread”). Cognates Cognate with Alemannic German Schmid, schméd, schmét, schmìd (“smith”), Bavarian schmidt, schmit, sghmiid (“smith”), Cimbrian smit, smitt (“smith”), Dutch smid (“smith”), German Schmied, Schmidt (“smith”), Low German Smidd, Smitt (“smith”), Luxembourgish Schmadd (“smith”), Mòcheno schmi' (“smith”), Vilamovian śmejt (“blacksmith”), Yiddish שמיד (shmid, “blacksmith, smith”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish smed (“smith”), Elfdalian smið (“smith”), Faroese and Icelandic smiður (“smith”), Gothic *𐍃𐌼𐌹𐌸𐌰 (*smiþa, “smith”) (whence 𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌰𐍃𐌼𐌹𐌸𐌰 (aizasmiþa, “coppersmith”)); also Greek σμίλη (smíli, “chisel”).

verb

  1. 1

    To forge, to form, usually on an anvil; by heating and pounding.

    Sigurd took the very best sword That the Dwarfs had ever smithed.

Etymology

From Middle English smythen (“to work metal, forge, beat into, torment, refine (of God - to refine his chosen); to create, work as a blacksmith”), from Old English smiþian (“to forge, fabricate”), from Proto-West Germanic *smiþōn, from Proto-Germanic *smiþōną. Compare Dutch smeden, German schmieden.

Forms

plural
smiths
past tense
smithed
past participle
smithed
present participle
smithing
third person singular
smiths
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).