"Smart working": linguistic notes on a possible pseudo-Anglicism

Abstract

This paper studies the origins of lexeme smart working, influenced by smartphone and various technology-related compounds of smart (e.g. smart home, smart card, etc.), and by its association with the connotative meanings of smart, such as “intelligent” and “fashionable”. As it arrived in Italian as a loanword, its first meaning was just “flexible work”. With the Covid-19 health emergency, however, this underwent a semantic narrowing and changed into “teleworking” or “remote working”. In this sense, it seems unjustified to classify the phrase as a “pseudo-Anglicism” upon its arrival in Italian, a definition that, however, may be acceptable after the semantic narrowing experienced during the pandemic.