smug

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: smŭg, IPA^(key): /smʌɡ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Etymology 1

Possibly from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”) although the g of the English word is not easily explained. From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). The ultimate source should be Proto-Germanic *smeuganą.

Compare Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.

Adjective

smug (comparative smugger, superlative smuggest)

1. Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.

   Kate looked extremely smug this morning.

2. Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.

   a smug look on her face

3. (obsolete) Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
   • 1556, Raphe Robynson, More’s Utopia: The English Translation thereof:

     They be so smug and smooth.

   • 1828, Thomas De Quincey, “Elements of Rhetoric”, in Blackwood's Magazine:

     the smug and scanty draperies of his style

   • c. 1621, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, “The Pilgrim”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii:

     A young, smug, handsome holiness has no fellow.

Synonyms

• gloaty
• self-satisfied
• complacent
• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

Derived terms

• smugly
• smugness

Translations

Verb

smug (third-person singular simple present smugs, present participle smugging, simple past and past participle smugged)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make smug, or spruce.
   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, , London: H L for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC:

     Thus said, he smug'd his beard, and stroked up fair.

2. (intransitive) to adopt an offensively self-complacent expression.
   • 1899 Ambrose Bierce: Fantastic Fables.

     Hearing a sound of strife, a Christian in the Orient asked his Dragoman the cause of it.
     "The Buddhists are cutting Mohammedan throats," the Dragoman replied, with oriental composure.
     "I did not know," remarked the Christian, with scientific interest, "that that would make so much noise."
     "The Mohammedans are cutting Buddhist throats, too," added the Dragoman.
     "It is astonishing," mused the Christian, "how violent and how general are religious animosities.
     Everywhere in the world the devotees of each local faith abhor the devotees of every other, and abstain
     from murder only so long as they dare not commit it. And the strangest thing about it is that
     all religions are erroneous and mischievous excepting mine. Mine, thank God, is true and benign."
     So saying he visibly smugged and went off to telegraph for a brigade of cutthroats to protect Christian interests.

1. (obsolete, transitive, slang) To seize; to confiscate.
2. (obsolete, transitive, slang) To hush up.

Further reading

• “smug”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “smug”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Etymology 2

Noun

smug (uncountable)

1. (obsolete, Anglo-Chinese) The smuggling trade.
   • 1830, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the East India Company, Report ... China Trade (page 397)

     Have not they some term by which they distinguish the illicit trade? — They usually call it the Smug-pigeon.

   • 1838, Charles Toogood Downing, The Stranger in China, page 66:

     The smug-boats have been called centipedes by the Europeans, on account of the great number of oars, with which, like legs, they walk the water.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• Gums, MGUs, gums, mugs

Danish

Etymology

From Danish smyge.

Noun

smug

1. in secret, hidden

Derived terms

• i smug

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠmˠʌɡ/

Noun

smug f (genitive singular smuige, nominative plural smuga)

1. Ulster form of smuga (“mucus, snot”)

Declension

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• smau (Nynorsk also)

Etymology

From the verb smyge.

Noun

smug n (definite singular smuget, indefinite plural smug, definite plural smuga or smugene)

1. an alley or alleyway (usually for pedestrians)

References

• “smug” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smuk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uk
• Syllabification: smug

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

smug m inan (diminutive smużek)

1. narrow strip of meadow or, less commonly, of a field or forest
2. any meadow, especially one that is marshy
3. (archaic) Alternative form of smuga (“streak, trail, contrail”)

Declension

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

smug f

1. genitive plural of smuga

Further reading

• smug in Polish dictionaries at PWN