Etymology

smitten

smit·ten
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Today it means: Affected by an act of smiting. Full definition →

Middle English smiten ← Old English smiten ← Proto-Germanic *smitanaz
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*smītaną“to hurl; fling”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*smitanaz
  3. Old English · inherited fromsmiten
  4. Middle English · inherited fromsmiten
  5. English todaysmitten

From Middle English smiten, from Old English smiten, ġesmiten, from Proto-Germanic *smitanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to hurl; fling”), equivalent to smite + -en (past participle ending).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishsmiten all →

smite

Proto-Germanic*smītaną all →

smitesmiting

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.