Forms: 1 smitte, 4, 7–8 smitt, 5 Sc. smyt(e, 5– smit. [OE. smitte (related to smittian SMIT v.1), = MDu. smitte, MLG. and LG. smitte (hence MDa. and Da. smitte, MSw. and Sw. smitta), MHG. smitze (G. schmitze). Cf. MDu. smit, LG. smit (MSw. smit, Sw. dial. smitt), OHG. smiz, bismiz (MHG. smitz, G. schmitz); also MDu. and MLG. smette, MDu., Du., Fris., LG., and Sw. smet, OHG. bismez. All of these forms have the senses ‘spot, stain, smear,’ etc. In later use the word is northern and Sc.]
† 1. A sullying spot or stain; a taint or blemish. Freq. fig. of moral taint. Obs.
c. 1030. Rule St. Benet (Logeman), 4. Se ðe ingæþ butan smittan, swylce wyrcð rihtwisnesse.
a. 1100. in Napier, O. E. Glosses, 93/2. Inluuiem, i. inmunditiam, wom, smittan.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9462. Þat sin … nan of left, wit-vten smitt, þat euer was vnder heuen born.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, ii. (Paul), 867. Blowmand bewte but wane or smyt of sawle and body to-giddir knyt.
c. 1425. Wyntown, Cron., IX. 1858. Bot qwhat at sal be put in wryte Off falssit sal ber nakyn smyte.
a. 1500. in Ratis Raving, etc. (1870), 92. For lesing is sa foul a smyt, That quhay sa euer be taynt with It [etc.].
1562. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), i. 220. Smaill sweit smaragde, smelling but smit of smot.
† 2. Smut in grain. Obs.–0
1585. Higins, trans. Junius’ Nomenclator, 144/2. The smit, blasting, or burned blacknes of the eares of corne.
† 3. (See quot. and SMUT sb. 3.) Obs.–1
1670. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Ess., 65. Those unripe mines which the cole-miners often … find and call Smitts, as being an imperfect cole.
4. A soft reddish earth or clayey ore, esp. used for marking sheep. ? Obs.
a. 1728. Woodward, Fossils, 2. The softer Ruddle, or, as ’tis call’d in the North, Smitt.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 440. Kidney ore is found in small masses blended in a red, staining, soft clay or earth, called smit, which is also an iron ore.
1794. Hutchinson, Hist. Cumb., I. Catal. 52. The reddle, called by the country people clayey iron ore, rud, and smit.
b. A mark of ownership put upon sheep.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Smit, a sheep mark.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Aug., 4/1. A ‘Shepherds’ Guide’ setting forth the tar marks, smits, and ear-slits peculiar to the sheep of each farm in the township.
5. A particle of soot; a smut, black spot.
a. 1825. in Jamieson, Suppl., s.v. Smut.
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 413. ‘Smitted’ clothes, or rather the ‘smits’ themselves, are the plague of the housewife on the washing day.
6. Infection; contagion.
1829–. in northern and Sc. dialect glossaries, etc.
