Gabby in San Diego asks about the origin of smitten, a word she likes enough to want it on a vanity license plate. Smitten is the past participle of smite, the old verb meaning “to strike” or “to beat,” familiar from the King James Bible. The romantic sense developed from the idea of being figuratively struck by passion or emotion, much as English uses positive expressions such as striking or “don’t that beat all.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Smitten not Smited Is the Past Participle of Smite”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Gabby. I’m calling from San Diego.
Hi, Gabby. Welcome to the show.
I had a quick question about the word smitten. I’m not familiar with the history or origin of the word, and I had it as a vanity plate. I lived in New Hampshire. I guess it’s the highest per capita number of, you know, self-designed license plates in the U.S., and I wasn’t sure if you could provide me with any extra insight on that word. I thought it sounded kind of contemporary, but I think it’s kind of an older word. Is that right?
Smitten, as in S-M-I-T-T-E-N?
Correct.
Cool. And, Gabby, what do you like about the word smitten?
I just kind of like the sound of it. It sounds kind of like kitten or, I don’t know, it sounds almost jargon-like in that, you know, we abbreviate a lot of words ending in I-N-G to I’m running late or, you know, other words that would normally end in I-N-G. But obviously this is not one of those words. It just sounds kind of contemporary, but I know that it has this, you know, older history to it.
Yeah, yeah, much older. It’s a very, very old word. And it’s simply the past participle of the verb to smite.
Interesting. I never knew that.
Yeah, yeah, which is a word you see all the time in the King James Bible, you know, smite your enemies. If you’re smitten, then you’re struck in the same way that smiting somebody is striking them or beating them. So you’re figuratively struck.
I wouldn’t have thought it would be sort of such an aggressive origin. That’s interesting.
Yeah, well, we have a lot of words in English that are really positive words that have to do with beating or striking. Something is striking. Somebody’s strikingly beautiful. Or don’t that beat all. Don’t that beat all. Or the term larapin, which you’ll hear in parts of the West, that means really good and comes from a Dutch word that means to beat or strike, like that’s larapin good pie.
Yeah, but like bite and bitten, smite and smitten. Is smite as attractive to you as smitten?
Not nearly, not nearly. I usually tend to have a negative connotation with the word to smite, you know, to smite someone. But smitten just seems cute and kind of ephemeral and, yeah, almost like you have a crush on someone, you know, not to be fully in love with someone. But, yeah, I just thought it was kind of more of a lighthearted word, but it turns out it’s not quite that.
Yeah, originally it wasn’t quite that. But for hundreds of years, smitten has meant to be struck with passion or emotion. And what I like about the word is that it just it sounds so complete to me. If you’re smitten, you are just completely in love with, enamored with whatever you’re talking about.
Yeah. So I see it as a really positive word, too. So if we see you driving around San Diego, and will there be a license plate that has smitten on it?
I tried to. I just registered my plate about six months ago, and it was not available, at least not in the traditional spelling. So I’m contemplating maybe getting a license plate that’s abbreviated in some way with letters slightly different. But I don’t know. I’m kind of a traditionalist and would prefer to just use the full smitten. So maybe someone will eventually not use it, and I’ll be able to use it again in the future.
Yeah. Good question. Sounds like there’s someone out there who shares your feelings.
Yeah, definitely. Smitten with the word smitten.
Thanks a lot for calling.
Thank you so much. Have a great afternoon.
All right. Take care.
All right. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
