# Smitten?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 13, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096 "2005-04-13T05:44:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Suraya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@Suraya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suraya)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/1 "2005-04-13T05:44:17Z")
My friend recently told me she wanted to smite someone, so she said, “He should be smitten.” This, of course, sounds like she wanted him to be love-struck. Is this the only way to say it with the verb “to smite”, or is there another tense I’m missing? ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/2 "2005-04-13T05:56:29Z")
There is another way to say it. My best friend plays a cleric on Everquest and every time she “smites” something (it’s a damage spell) it says, “so and so has been smitten!” like she charmed it or something and now it’s going to follow her around with big puppydog eyes. Bugs the crap out of me. I would prefer “has been smote” to “has been smitten”, personally. [Merriam Webster](http://www.m-w.com) says “smote” is past tense, but I am sure a Doper with an OED and better knowledge of English will be along shortly to elucidate. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/3 "2005-04-13T06:12:03Z")
> [@Suraya](#): > > My friend recently told me she wanted to smite someone, so she said, “He should be smitten.” This, of course, sounds like she wanted him to be love-struck. Is this the only way to say it with the verb “to smite”, or is there another tense I’m missing? That’s just the way you conjugate the verb “smite.” Today I smite, yesterday I smote, tomorrow I may be smitten. They’re the same words. It’s just that the only surviving common usage is “smitten by love”. Rest assured, in older times being smitten was generally not a happy feeling. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/4 "2005-04-13T23:34:00Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > That’s just the way you conjugate the verb “smite.” Today I smite, yesterday I smote, tomorrow I may be smitten. They’re the same words. It’s just that the only surviving common usage is “smitten by love”. Rest assured, in older times being smitten was generally not a happy feeling. This is not about conjugation. English has no conjugations, except for the third person singular of the simple present tense. To “be smitten” is the passive _mood_, which uses _be_ and the past participle. It’s an irregular verb, and the participle can also be _smote_ (same as past tense) or _smit_. When someone is “_smitten_” (meaning in love, etc.) it’s simply an idiom; it’s an expression that isn’t to be taken literally. Just like to _be bowled over_ normally doesn’t really mean one has been knocked down by a bowling ball. When your friend said “He should be smitten,” she was just using the verb _smite_ with its normal, no idiomatic conotation. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2005, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/5 "2005-04-13T23:52:07Z")
> [@etmiller](#): > > This is not about conjugation. English has no conjugations, except for the third person singular of the simple present tense. I’m checking some references to make sure I’m not totally off base, but what is the narrow definition of “conjugation” that justifies the above statement, and who adheres to it? Is this one of those situations where something must be true in English because it’s true in, say, Latin? ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/6 "2005-04-14T00:02:34Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > I’m checking some references to make sure I’m not totally off base, but what is the narrow definition of “conjugation” that justifies the above statement, and who adheres to it? Is this one of those situations where something must be true in English because it’s true in, say, Latin? I’m wondering the same thing. I mean, I can conjugate the French _avoir_ in the first person present as _j’ai_, and in the imperfect as _j’avais_. Am I not “conjugating” the verb “to have” when I write “I have” or “I had”? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2005, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/7 "2005-04-14T16:26:02Z")
> [@NattoGuy](#): > > It’s just that the only surviving common usage is “smitten by love”. Rest assured, in older times being smitten was generally not a happy feeling. From a WW2 Air Force song: \* Don’t give me no P-38 The propellors they counter-rotate They lie broken and smitten from Burma to Britain Don’t give me no P-38. \* ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/8 "2005-04-16T00:33:40Z")
I forget if it was Chaucer or Mallory, but there was much talk of knight’s desring to smite his enemy by applyinig a “buffet upon the helm”, i.e., a whack on the head. Smitten must be an idiom, similar to the head-over-heels in love connotations of “you slay me”. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smitten/299096/9 "2005-04-16T01:08:18Z")
> [@Suraya](#): > > This, of course, sounds like she wanted him to be love-struck. “Love-struck” means exactly that - struck, or smitten, by love: the metaphor’s just gotten a little ossified over time, so most people don’t consider the derivation.