smeddum

English

Alternative forms

• smitham, smithum

Etymology

From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).

Noun

smeddum (uncountable)

1. Fine powder; flour.
2. The powder or finest part of ground malt.
3. (mining) Smitham.
4. (Scotland) Zest, energy; pluck; sagacity; quickness of apprehension; gumption; spirit; mettle.
   • 1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 271:

     maybe there were better folk far in Segget, but few enough with smeddum like his.

5. (UK dialectal, Northern England) Ore small enough to pass through the wire bottom of a sieve.
6. (UK dialectal, Northern England) A layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal.

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Scots

Etymology

From Old English smeodoma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsmɛdəm/

Noun

smeddum (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) fine powder, smitham
2. pith, essence
3. zest, spirit, gumption
   • 1925, Hugh MacDiarmid, "Cophetua",:

     She's showin' the haill coort/ the smeddum intil her!

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)