smug

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.

• enPR: smŭg, IPA^(key): /smʌɡ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

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 (published 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.

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

• smugly
• smugness

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[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC:

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

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

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

• Gums, MGUs, gums, mugs

From Danish smyge.

smug

1. in secret, hidden

• i smug

• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠmˠʌɡ/[1]

smug f (genitive singular smuige, nominative plural smuga)

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

• smau (Nynorsk also)

From the verb smyge.

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

1. an alley or alleyway (usually for pedestrians)

• “smug” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /smuk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uk
• Syllabification: smug

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

smug m inan

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”).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

smug f

1. genitive plural of smuga

• smug in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• smug in Polish dictionaries at PWN