Forms: α. 4 smiþi, 5 smyþi; 5 smythie, 5–6 -y, 6 -ye, smithee, 6–7 smithie, 7– smithy; 4 smeþi, smethi, smeþey, 5–7 smethey, 5–6 smethy, 7 smethie. β. Sc. and north. dial. 6–7 smydy, 8 smidy; 5–6 smyddy, 6–9 smiddie, 6– smiddy; 5 smede, smedye, 6 smedie, 5–7 smedy, 6 smeddy. [ad. ON. smiðja (Icel. smiðja, Norw. smidja; MSw. smidhia, smidia, Sw. smedja, Da. smedie), = OE. smiððe: see SMITHE sb.]
1. The workshop of a smith; a blacksmith’s shop; = FORGE sb. 2. Also occas., a portable forge.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23238 (Edin.). Als it war dintes of a stiþi Þat smiþis smitis in þair smiþi [Cott. smeþey, Gött. smethi].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 461/1. Smythy, fabricia.
1496. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 289. Item, for bering of xxx waw of irn fra the marchant buthis to Thom Barkaris smythy, xlv d.
1546. Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), 247. One cotage or smythye and a garthyne.
1562. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees, 1835), 207. The Smethey. One paire of bellowes [etc.].
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 512. In the smithies where brasse is made and wrought.
1700. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XII. 390. His blazing Locks … hiss’d, like red hot Iron within the Smithy drown’d.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 10 July. Finding the tools of the defunct, together with some coals, in the smithy.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 486. It proved to be a moveable smithy, furnished with all tools and materials necessary for repairing arms and carriages.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 229. Not when I pass a smithy; for then the iron bars make a tremendous noise.
fig. 1865. Sat. Rev., 12 Aug., 204/1. The extent to which rivals in Paris, Liege, or Elberfield, were likely to supplant the great British smithy [Birmingham].
1866. Kingsley, Herew., vii. They hammered at each other in the devil’s smithy.
β. c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., I. v. 228. Quhar men war wirkand at a smedye [v.r. smyddy].
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 328. For tua laid of colis, in Melros, to the smyddy.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 56. For smowking of the smydy.
1580. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 320. Item, in the smiddie, ane irne studie [etc.].
1665. Brathwait, Comment Two Tales, 50. Those antient Verses … That Scholar well deserves a Widdie, Who makes his Study of a Smiddie.
1786. Burns, Twa Dogs, 19. At Kirk or Market, Mill or Smiddie.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 122. Like … a vice in a smiddy.
1899. Crockett, Kit Kennedy, 243. Kit had trysted with the orra-man to meet him at the smiddy.
† b. = BLOOMERY1. Obs. rare–1.
1565. in T. West, Antiq. Furness (1774), App. IX. The queen’s majestie’s woods … are like to fall into great decay … by reason of certain iron smithies there lately erected and demised.
2. Smithcraft; smith-work. rare.
1804. W. Taylor, in Crit. Rev., III. 541. Important inventions; as that of clothing, of fire, of smithy, of foundery [etc.].
1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 178. Details of the Expenses,… Smithy, Carpentry, and Sawing, £1,700 19 0.
3. attrib., as smithy ashes, bellows, cur, dust, -fire, vice, work, etc.
1469–70. Durh. MS. Rolls (Surtees), 642. Le Smethyhouse infra Abbathiam.
1495. Naval Accs. Hen. VII. (1896), 158. Smythy Bellowes, ij payer.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 762. Lyke a smythy kur.
1556. Knaresborough Wills (Surtees), I. 73. My smithie geare.
1611. Cotgr., Escume de Mareschal, the refuse, or drosse of yron; smithie dust.
1669. Records Baron Crt. Stitchill (S.H.S.), 54. For smydy werke, one pund eight shillings.
1677. Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees), 241. Item for smiddy ashes, 1s.
a. 1837. Nicoll, Poems, The Smith, i. His grip was like a smiddy vice.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. V. vi. Smithy-fires … for the manufacture of arms.
4. Special combs.: smithy-coals, a kind of small coal used by smiths; smithy-coom (see quot. 1855); † smithy-craft, smith-craft, smith-work; smithy-dander, a forge cinder; smithy lime, a limestone layer of Aldstone Moor in Cumberland; † smithy-man, an iron-smith; † smithy-miln, a smithy in which the work is partly performed by water power; smithy-slack, slag, the shale or iron dust of a forge; † smithy-water, the water in which a smith cools his heated irons.
1482. in Charters, etc. Edinb. (1871), 169. Of ilk chaldir of *smethy colis vi d.
1789. J. Williams, Min. Kingd., I. 157. The smithy coal of Balmule and Rosebank.
1611. Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees), 161. Paide for beringe sand and *smethie come to the same lyme, xij d.
1855. Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Smithycome or Smitticome, the smith’s iron dust or sweepings mixed with hot pitch as an impervious composition for the tops of wooden sheds.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, VIII. vii. 107. The mychty God of fyr … to his *smyddy craft and forge hym spedis.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, iii. You cannot suppose that Harry Gow cares the value of a *smithy-dander for such a cub as yonder cat-a-mountain?
1833–4. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 585/2. *Smiddy lime.
a. 1400. Isumbras, 410. A *smethymane thus was he thore … And blewe thaire belyes bloo.
1533–4. Durh. Househ. Bk. (Surtees), 329. Cristofero Willey, le smedyman.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 9 b. Cutlersmylnes, *smethymylnes & all suche other.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, I. 194. This larger mass being generally … imbedded in *smithy-slack.
1837. J. T. Smith, trans. Vicat’s Mortars, Pref. p. i. Another looked upon *smithy slag and iron-dross as the finest ingredients.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 43 [The water] was blacker than *smythy water.
