“smiteth” is a form of
smite
/smaɪt/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms smites smiting smote smited smitten smit smight
- verb (archaic) To hit; to strike.
- verb To strike down or kill with godly force.
- verb To injure with divine power.
- verb To kill violently; to slay.
- verb To put to rout in battle; to overthrow by war.
- verb To afflict; to chasten; to punish.
- verb (figuratively, now only in passive) To strike with love or infatuation. “Bob was smitten with Laura from the first time he saw her.”
- noun (archaic, rare) A heavy strike with a weapon, tool, or the hand.
- proper noun A river in Nottinghamshire, with its headwaters in Leicestershire, England, which joins the River Devon, near Shelton.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English smiten, from Old English smītan (“to daub, smear, smudge; soil, defile, pollute”), from Proto-West Germanic *smītan, from Proto-Germanic *smītaną (“to sling; throw; smear”), from Proto-Indo-European *smeyd- (“to smear, whisk, strike, rub”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smiete (“to throw, toss”), West Frisian smite (“to throw”), Dutch smijten (“to fling, hurl, throw”), German Low German smieten (“to throw, chuck, toss”), German schmeißen (“to fling, throw”), Danish smide (“to throw”), Swedish smita (“to run off (to)”), Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌼𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bismeitan, “to besmear, anoint”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To strike; to inflict a blow upon with the hand, or with any instrument held in the hand, or with a missile thrown by the hand; as, to smite with the fist, with a rod, sword, spear, or stone.
- verb To cause to strike; to use as an instrument in striking or hurling.
- verb To strike; to collide; to beat. [Archaic]
- noun The act of smiting; a blow.
Etymology [AS. smitan to smite, to soil, pollute; akin to OFries. smita to smite, LG. smiten, D. smijten, G. schmeissen, OHG. smizan to smear, stroke, OSw. & dial. Sw. smita to smite, Dan. smiide to throw, Goth. bismeitan, to anoint, besmear; cf. Skr. m to be fat. The original sense seems to have been, to daub on, to smear. Cf. Smut.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “smite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details