smicker

• smikker (Scotland)

From Middle English smiker, from Old English smicer, smicor (“beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, neat, tasteful”), from Proto-West Germanic *smikr, from Proto-Germanic *smikraz (“fine, elegant, delicate, tender”), from Proto-Indo-European *smēyg- (“small, delicate”), from Proto-Indo-European *smē-, *smey- (“to smear, stroke, wipe, rub”). Cognate with Middle High German smecker (“neat, elegant”), Ancient Greek σμικρός (smikrós), μικρός (mikrós, “small, short”), Lithuanian smeigti (“to lunge, thrust, jab”), Latin mīca (“crumb, morsel, bit”).

For the verb, compare Swedish smickra (“to flatter, coax, wheedle, butter up”), Danish smigre (“to flatter”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈsmɪkə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ɪkə(ɹ)

smicker (comparative more smicker, superlative most smicker)

1. (archaic) Elegant; fine; attractive, beautiful.
   • 1606, John Ford, Fame's Memorial:

     No, his deep-reaching spirit could not brook
     The fond addiction to such vanity;
     Regardful of his honour he forsook
     The smicker use of court-humanity.

2. (archaic) Amorous; wanton.
3. (archaic) Handsome, spruce; smart, dapper.
   • 1590, Thomas Lodge, “Corydon’s Song”, in Rosalynde:

     A smicker boy, a lither swain,
     Heigh ho, a smicker swain,
     That his love was wanton fain, […]

smicker (third-person singular simple present smickers, present participle smickering, simple past and past participle smickered)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To look amorously or wantonly.
   • 1808, original 1668, John Dryden, Walter Scott, An Evening's Love:

     […] Maskall, must you be smickering after wenches, while I am in calamity?

2. (intransitive, chiefly Scotland) To look or smile seductively or amorously.
3. (intransitive, chiefly Scotland) To laugh or smile in a sniggering or leering way; smirk.
   • 2014, Crystal Evans, Every Man Deserves A Good Jacket, page 116:

     I gave him a questioning look and he hurled a pillow at me. “Who you a look pon so?” “Me baby father” He smickered.

• smickering
• smickly

• Emricks, Remicks

Deverbal from smickra

smicker n

1. flattery (usually insincere to gain favor)

   Synonym: smörande

• smickra
• smickrare

• smicker in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• smicker in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• smicker in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)