smithy

What it means

1. The location where a smith (particularly a blacksmith) works; a forge.

   Traditionally a village smithy was a busy place because the smith's work was so necessary.

   2 more examples

   The workshop with its smithy is still intact, also the loading stage where the narrow-gauge wagons tipped their contents into those of the G.W.R.

   1941 June, “Notes and News: The Derelict Glyn Valley Tramway”, in Railway Magazine, page 278

   Close to the hump-backed bridge on the lane leading into the Hambleden Valley is a mid-19th-century smithy, its inside walls hung with tools of the blacksmith's trade, though decorative wrought-ironwork is now the main product from its glowing forge.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 214, about Hambleden

   Synonyms: forge, smithery

In a sentence

Traditionally a village smithy was a busy place because the smith's work was so necessary.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Germanic*smiþjǭ
2. Old Norsesmiðja
3. Middle Englishsmythy
4. Englishsmithy

From Middle English smythy, from Old Norse smiðja, from Proto-Germanic *smiþjǭ. Cognate with Old English smiþþe (whence the obsolete modern doublet smithe, smythe (“the workshop of a smith, forge”)). See the Proto-Germanic entry for further cognates. Partially displaced by English forge.