Old English smeortan (verb), of West Germanic origin; related to German schmerzen; the adjective is related to the verb, the original sense (late Old English) being 'causing sharp pain'; from this arose 'keen, brisk', whence the current senses of 'mentally sharp' and 'neat in a brisk, sharp style'.
The first English use of smart was as a verb meaning ‘be painful’, which survives in the verb meaning ‘to feel a sharp, stinging pain in a part of the body’—its root is probably related to Latin mordere ‘to bite’. The original meaning of the adjective was ‘causing sharp pain’, which led to ‘keen or brisk’ and developed into the current senses of ‘mentally sharp, clever’ and ‘neat, well turned out’. We probably call an irritating person who always has a clever answer a smart alec after Alex Hoag, a notorious thief and conman in New York in the 1840s, who earned the nickname Smart Alex from his reputation for not getting caught. In the late 17th century smart money was money paid to sailors and soldiers to compensate them for wounds. Smart here meant ‘physical pain’. Modern usage, from around 1900, refers to money bet by people with expert knowledge, with smart meaning ‘quick-witted’. The sugar-coated chocolate sweets called Smarties were launched in 1937. Because of their similar appearance to pills, doctors are sometimes accused of handing out drugs ‘like Smarties’.
来自古英语 smeart, 疼痛的，来自 Proto-Germanicsmartaz, 疼痛的，被咬的，来自 PIEsmerd, 咬，叮，词源同 mordant, morsel。后原词义几乎不再使用，词义褒义化为咬中的，一针见血的， 以及聪明的，机敏的，智慧的等诸相关词义。
🫧 给人的感觉这个词义变化的本质是疼痛带给人更加敏锐的感官。