Having greater intelligence or mental ability; more clever or quick-thinking than someone or something else.
From Old English 'smeart,' meaning 'painful' or 'severe.' Over centuries, it evolved to mean 'quick-witted' (sharp in mind like a sharp pain), then to mean 'intelligent,' then to the comparative form 'smarter.'
The word 'smart' originally meant 'painful'—something that 'stings'—so 'smart' people have minds that are sharp and sting with cleverness! This shows how our bodies and emotions shape our language: intelligence got named after physical pain.
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