Getting smacked in the head - what is the exact meaning?

KatjaK · January 30, 2016, 9:47pm

Does that mean something like a stroke or similar?
The text I am reading and where I found that phrase is about the human brain.

Thanks for help.

nobody · January 30, 2016, 11:51pm

The normal colloquial meaning in (British) English would be to get hit (or punched) in the head.

BUT it depends on the context - there could conceivably be other meanings…

Calculasians · January 31, 2016, 12:05am

Took me a while to find this but I think it’s pretty accurate.

Dimethylamine · January 31, 2016, 12:43am

Well, not quite. That would be just ‘hitting or punching oneself’. Getting ‘smacked in the head’ usually means getting hit with an object or by someone else.

Calculasians · January 31, 2016, 1:22am

True. Perhaps I confused myself with “smacking oneself in the head.” Or would it be incorrect to say that “smacking” and “punching” are the same thing?

Dimethylamine · January 31, 2016, 1:31am

In my opinion:
Well, punching is a form of striking/contact when you roll your hand into a fist, usually in a violent manner (fisticuffs, anger, or perhaps just a playful sparring match like in boxing).

Smacking is more broad. It’s more colloquial and almost an onomatopoeia (the word sounds like the sound it makes). You can ‘smack someone on the head’ as a form of playful punishment. Example, “He said something perverted to his coworker, so I smacked him aside the head to remind him to calm down with the joking.”

If I threw a football at someone and he didn’t catch it, you can say it ‘smacked him in the head’.

If I threw a wad of paper at someone as a joke, it ‘smacked him/her in the head’.

Basically, I find smacking as a form of playfulness, and punching as a better action word.

If you read about assault and battery on the news, no real journalist would say “The attacker smacked his victim until he became knocked out.” It sounds silly and I can only help by chuckle with that choice of word.

The words are very similar, it’s just a matter of descriptiveness.

TeacherNia · January 31, 2016, 6:06am

getting smacked in the head = being hit on the head with the palm of a hand = being slapped on the head

nobody · January 31, 2016, 9:09am

Yes, the basic act of “smacking” is striking with the palm of the hand - like “slapping”

BUT in British colloquial usage it can have a more general sense of hitting.

“I smacked him one in the head” = “I hit (or punched) him in the head.”

So it depends a lot on the exact context.

Zestman · January 31, 2016, 11:54am

I believe you have the definition in a nutshell. Bravo!