Wordsmith as a verb

“I’m gonna wordsmith it.” The meaning is clear: someone is prepared to go over a piece of prose with unstinting care to get everything right. That’s what a wordsmith — “a person who works with words,” “especially : a skillful writer” — does. But is wordsmith a verb?

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the transitive verb smith, or smið — ”to make, construct, or form (a metal weapon, iron implement, etc.) by forging and hammering” — to the year 1000 or so. The word soon acquired a figurative meaning: “to create or refine, esp. as if by the work of a smith.”

The OED entry for wordsmith has the word only as a noun, with a first citation from 1873. But the dictionary adds the (undefined) variant wordsmithing, with citations from 1920 and 2006 — “not an excellent bit of wordsmithing,” “any wordsmithing and posturing.” Word Spy cites an earlier appearance, from 1899: “Small wonder that in slang every man tried his hand at word-smithing.” Wordsmithing in these three citations appears to be a gerund, a verb form functioning as a noun.

But where’s the verb? Wordnik has a Wiktionary definition of Wordsmith as a verb: “To apply craftsman-like skills to word use.” Alas, no citations. But wait: Wordnik also has an entry for wordsmithed, with citations from the Internets. From 2010: “We broke into groups, developed draft text, and then wordsmithed as a group to produce the final text.” Here’s an older (1988) non-Wordnik example of wordsmith as a verb, from Richard Feynman via Google Books:

Gradually, I realized that the way my report was written, it would require a lot of wordsmithing — and we were running out of time. Then somebody suggested that my report could go in as an appendix. That way, it wouldn’t have to be wordsmithed to fit in

— and that’s where the preview runs out.

Google’s Ngram viewer has wordsmithing first appearing in 1941; wordsmithed, in 1963. Both words rise in use in the 1960s and again beginning in the 1980s, with wordsmithing far more common than wordsmithed.

What I think I’m seeing: a noun that gives rise to a gerund that gives rise to a verb. Curious indeed.

Now I’m gonna apply craftsman-like skills to what I’ve written before posting it.

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[A dictionary with entries for verb forms would have made my life much easier when I studied French and Spanish.]