ETYMOLOGY
from OED: from West Germanic: Old English bísmer, -or (strong neuter), identical with Old High German bísmer (ridicule), from bí-, be- prefix (in its strong or accented form) + -smer, which Schmeller connects with Middle High German smier (a smile, laughing), smieren (to smile).
Others have compared Old High German smero, Old English smeoru, Old Germanic *smerwo-(m, ‘fat, grease, butter,’ which seems, on phonetic as well as other grounds, less probable.
EXAMPLE
“…And eek for sche was somdel smoterlich
Sche was as deyne as water in a dich
As ful of hokir and of bissemare
hir thoughte ladyes oughten hir to spare /
what for hir kynreed and hir nortelrye…”
From: The Harleian ms. 7334 of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer, c1386
Lexicophilia 