The Smertae were a people of ancient

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

, known only from a single mention of them by the

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

c. 150. From his general description and the approximate locations of their neighbors, their territory was in the modern area of central

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

. Ptolemy does not provide them with a town or principal place.

History

Their name is commemorated by ''Càrn Smeart'', an ancient burial mound on the ridge between the rivers Carron and Oykel. The etymology of the name Smertae is not known for certain. However, entry 1794 of the ''

Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch The ''Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'' (''IEW''; "Indo-European Etymological Dictionary") was published in 1959 by the Austrian-Czech comparative linguist and Celtic languages expert Julius Pokorny. It is an updated and slimmed-down ...

'' maintains that the element *''smert''- is present in Welsh verb ''darmerth'' (*''do-ɸare-smertā''-) meaning ‘purvey’ (i.e. 'provide') and noun ''armerth'' (*''ɸare-smertā-s'') ‘provision’ as well as in

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

''airmert'' (*''ɸare-smerto-m'') ‘preparation’, glossing *''smert''- as 'provide for, purvey'.

References

* * Rivet, A L F & Smith, C 1982 ''The Roman Place-Names of Britain'', B T Batsford, London, 460-1. {{Scotland during the Roman Empire Historical Celtic peoples Picts Tribes mentioned by Ptolemy