Having just used this word in a limerick homage to Peter Rozovsky's answer to Patti Abbott's flash fiction challenge, I find myself wondering about its origins. Is it just one of those nonsense words, or does it have some root in reality? I feel that 'smith' has got to have some part in it, whether the name or the occupation, but can't get any further with it. Can you?
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Wrong! Nothing to do with smiths of any kind. It comes from the Irish word smidirīn, and I have to say I suspected that -een ending was Irish. Coleen, Eileen, shabeen, well, you get the idea. The original word is smiodar, combined with that familiar diminutive -in or -een ending.
Apparently smithereen has some shaky beginnings. There is actually some chance that it came from English first as smither and was incorporated into the Irish language, only to be given back later. The spelling wasn't stablized and so there are mentions of shivereens and smiddereens before we have the 'official' version. Basically, though, we're talking about bits or fragments, usually begotten by explosive shocks.
I liked this article about the word, not least for the idiosyncratic fragments by two brilliant authors that frame it...
And this post would not be complete with out reference to the rock group of the same name. Herewith, a sample:
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"-in" (with a fada on the i when the word is Irish, or "-een" added to any word, means "small" or "little", as you have found.
ReplyDeletePoitin or poteen literally means "little pot".
Now I am imagining Mr. Smithers being tapped on the knee by a doctor and shattering into smithereens!
ReplyDeleteA fada, huh? That is a word I don't know, Maria.
ReplyDeleteKathleen--it would be cool if they were all exact but tiny replicas of him!
Oh--'Kathleen' is probably an example of that -een phenomenon. Never thought about that one.
I just realized that I don't have a picture of anything blowing to smithereens here. Might have to fix that tonight.
The Diacritics section in the following link explains all.
ReplyDelete"http://www.kronie.com/irish_orthography/encyclopedia.htm"
I found Irish an exhausting language, mostly because of the variations within the genitive case.
Your use of smithereens had got me thinking about this word, or at least part of it. I’d guessed right on the Irish diminutive –een; I’ve read at least one Irish crime novel in which maneen is used as an insult. I’d figured that the other part of the word came from the name Smithers, though.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever seen /
An isolated smithereen?
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I use Twitter very rarely, but there are some very interesting posters there.
ReplyDeleteHere is today's find, a site bursting with new words.
"https://twitter.com/#!/Vocabits"
Peter, I like the couplet. As to the question it poses, I wonder if when people actually see something blasted to bits they think, What a lot of smithereens there are about! It seems a word much more suited to hyperbole than reality.
ReplyDeleteI too was sure there was a 'smith' in there somewhere.
Maria, thanks for the link on the fada. Irish does seem a bit much to be getting on with at this late date, though you never know where one's interests will next take one. My sister is learning Japanese lately, for instance.
ReplyDeletethe Twitter thread looks like it could be interesting, but I can't really get into the Twitter format. Too longwinded, I guess.
It would have scanned better had I gone with anybody rather than anyone.
ReplyDelete======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I see what you mean, but I thought it worked rather well. A matter of where you emphasize the lines, I ess.
ReplyDeleteA smithereen sounds like something that would interest a particle physicist.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they would be interested in using the name for some new tinier building block of everything.
ReplyDeleteGoes nicely with the whole big bang idea too.