I am not an English native and I just wanted to appreciate the fact that WK uses so much rare English vocab and expressions
I am not an English native and I just wanted to appreciate the fact that WK uses so much rare English vocab and expressions
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Huh, I have no idea what theyāre trying to say here. It just seems like a typo to me, maybe they meant it really hurts? The spine telescoping metaphor is cool though.
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It really smarts = it really hurts.
To smart = to hurt.
Itās a colloquialism but not really used by people who are under the age of 40 Iād say.
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Really? Iāve never heard it in my life, is it American?
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I wouldnāt say it sincerely, but maybe in some kind of joking or sarcastic situation.
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Yeah Iād use it the same way!
I think itās just general English since Iāve heard Americans and British people say it.
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I donāt see it marked as regional.
@zyoeru @Leebo Huh, I guess itās this definition: smart - Wiktionaryāetymology 1, and yeah not marked regionally. I havenāt ever heard smart used that way in Australia, though, only ever itās uses in etymology 2. Learn something new everyday.
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Iāve grown up in Australia and known this one my whole life, though may have picked it up from British relatives.
Iād say for an Australian English speaker itās probably a bit of an āupper classā turn of phrase.
Rarer again in Australia (in my opinion) is āsmartā as in āwell-dressedā.
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Well, even under the etymology 2 heading painful is listed as a definition!
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Oh yeah, I just saw that. I mean these uses make sense to me:
But hearing another Australian say they understand these phrases:
is making me question my realityā¦ going to ask some friends about this.
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Some clips from Youtube after a quick search.
So, yeah, itās not used by people in real life much, but if you get a chance to be exposed to it, then you know it.
Also, I donāt recommend randomly watching videos about people being hurt. -_-
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Very common and usual to hear when I was growing up (70s/80s). That was in Canada.
Iām South African and Iām familiar with the phrase although I cant think of an instance where someone has actually used it irl. I think I may have picked it up reading British novels as a kid (I feel like itās something they would have said in the Famous Five books).
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Guess whoever made this mnemonic is more than 40 years old 
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Itās always interesting how easy it is to under or over estimate how common a turn of phrase is.
I remember once I used the phrase āin my wheelhouseā as in, āin my repertoireā or āIām comfortable in that situationā and my roommate had no idea what I was talking about, which led to a crisis of faith where for a few weeks I went around asking everybody if theyād heard the phrase. I think most had, but definitely not all.
In retrospect it was more weird that archaic baseball slang had somehow wormed its way invisibly into my vocabulary, than that my roommate wanted to know what a āwheelhouseā was.
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Also used by aunts when you ask them for something to eat and they tell you to fill your boots.
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It would be sarcasm or humorous understatement to say breaking your back āsmartsā. Something that smarts is more like a short sharp stinging pain, like if someone slaps your face, or you fall into a patch of nettles. It doesnāt have to be physical pain either. I can say something a bit rude to you that āhits a nerveā (eg āwell maybe you would have got a better score if youād actually done some revisionā) and that would smart as well.
Source: old enough to be in the apparently decrepit category mentioned above. That smarts a bit too. But itās certainly ācommon parlanceā in Britain Iād say. We like our nuanced language and humour over here.
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u smarts
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I assume itās of Germanic origin. In Swedish the word for pain is āsmƤrtaā
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