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etymology - History of ‘smile one's thanks’


I'm interested to know when the actual phrase smile one's thanks was first registered in the English language, as well as smile agreement and nod agreement.



Answer



OED gives three citations from Shakespeare for smile as a transitive verb...



1598 Love's Labour's Lost v. ii.
Some Dick That smyles, his cheeke in yeeres.


1609 Pericles xxi. 127
Thou doest looke like patience..smiling extremitie out of act.


1616 Twelfth Night (1623) iii. ii.
He does smile his face into more lynes, then is in the new Mappe.




OED's first citation for transitive nod is a 1522 translation of Virgil's Æneid, but it's not until over a century later that we see it used with anything other than head[s] as the object (1667, in Dryden's Annus Mirabilis - "He..nods at every house his threatning fire.").



OP's specific pairings smile thanks and nod agreement are trivial variants once the possibility of transitive usage is established within the language.


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