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Megumi@Ibaraki
"smart" for non-human entities
I have a question about the adjective, smart.
So and so is smart (meaning the person is intelligent.)
That's a smart outfit. (meaning the outfit is stylish)
What about "smart phone"? Does this smart mean "intelligent"?? Or "of a good design"?
2019년 9월 25일 오후 12:19
답변 · 4
A very common usage of “smart” in British English is what we in America, would probably just call stylish. It’s actually the first definition listed in the Cambridge Dictionary:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/smart
As far as the “smart phone” (emphasis on “smart”), I believe it’s a reference to the telephone’s being intelligent — able to “think”. I suppose that in British English, with the emphasis on “phone”, it could conceivably mean “stylish”. Or perhaps that would be “a smart smartphone”.
2019년 9월 25일
I think the smartphone got it's name from the fact that it can do a lot of different things all in one device, i.e. it's multifunctional. Before smartphones, mobile phones could only do a few things. Multifunctional phones are therefore 'smart', in the same way that a human that can do lots of things really well is also called smart.
2019년 9월 25일
and smart for a person can mean intelligent, it can mean they are well dressed or it can mean they are street-smart rather than traditionally intelligent
2019년 9월 25일
In a way, I think they are called smart phones because they’re “smart.” They have capabilities beyond that of a regular phone, and I think that’s how they got the name
2019년 9월 25일
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Megumi@Ibaraki
언어 구사 능력
영어, 이탈리아어, 일본어
학습 언어
영어, 이탈리아어
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