Ἐπισμῇ

[Meaning he/she/it] wipes on, scrapes on. But 'to smear' is to scrape off dirt. Some [say that it used] metaphorically from the [verb] to smear, that is to rub on, since smearing is an energetic sort of rubbing. And [that] perhaps the word bruise arose from this.¹ But others [say that] the expression is idiosyncratically recherché and that is is not to rub on, but to hit; to pound [is] to lambaste.² It is [also] abuse: from [the notion of] laying hold of the things being smeared.³ Aristophanes [writes]: "for what evils does this man not besmear us with?"⁴