smarty

   Used mainly in the USA to someone who is ostentatiously displaying smartness, especially if he is doing so by contradicting the speaker. ‘Smarty’ is a relatively mild term. An American who is more irate is likely to use: smart aleck, smartass, smart guy, smarty pants, wise-ass, wise guy. A typical use of ‘smarty’ occurs in Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis: ‘Honest, George, what do you think of that rag Louetta went and bought? Don’t you think it’s the limit?’ ‘What’s eating you, Eddie? I call it a swell little dress.’ ‘There now, do you see, smarty! You’re such an authority on clothes!’ Louetta raged.

   Later in the same novel Babbitt is having a manicure, and is establishing a friendly relationship with the girl attending to him. She tells him: ‘“There was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something -” “Kind of no-account, I guess you mean!” “Who’s telling this, smarty?”’ The girl concerned clearly feels that this term will not offend her customer. In this instance it even carries a hint of flattery.

   Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, has Tom tell another boy: ‘You think you’re mighty smart, don’t you?’ A moment later he paraphrases this by saying: ‘Smarty! you think you’re some now, don’t you?’