smug
/smʌɡ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.31 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
Etymology
Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also 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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: smuk, *smeugan
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /smʌɡ/
- British English: /smʌɡ/