smithereens
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See also: Smithereens
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested, though the etymons are all first attested later than the English word:[1]
- From Irish smidiríní, smiodairíní (“smithereens”), from smiodar (“broken piece, fragment”) + -ín (suffix forming diminutive nouns) + -í (slender form of -aí (suffix forming plurals of some nouns)).
- From smithers (“fragment; atom”) infixed with -een (suffix forming diminutive nouns in Irish English).
- From Hiberno-English (Wexford) smaddereen, a variant of smattering (“small amount or number of something; shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject”).
- From Hiberno-English (Wexford) smithered, smashed
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation, Ireland) IPA(key): /smɪðəˈɹiːnz/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌsmɪðəˈɹinz/
Audio (General American): (file) - Rhymes: -iːnz
- Hyphenation: smi‧ther‧eens
Noun
[edit]smithereens pl (plural only) (rare singular smithereen)
- (originally Ireland, informal) Fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items.
- Synonyms: shards, shivereens, smithers
- The urn shattered into smithereens the moment it hit the ground.
- When the waiter dropped the platter, one smithereen struck him above the knee, and the four remaining smithereens scattered across the floor.
- 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
- However, something once happened on the railway there which showed the very best of mankind: heroism, duty, self-sacrifice and calm professionalism under terrible pressure. It is a story which gives us far, far better reasons for remembering this attractive little town, which without these heroes would have been blown to smithereens in a gigantic explosion. (Two railwaymen lost their lives in 1944 when a wagon in an ammunition train caught fire and blew up, an even worse disaster was averted however.)
Translations
[edit]fragments or splintered pieces; numerous tiny disconnected items
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References
[edit]- ^ “smithereens, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “smithereens, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading
[edit]
smithereens (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
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