smug

English

Etymology

From Middle Low German smuk (“neat, trim, spruce, elegant, fair”) from Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”), from smücken (“to ornament, adorn, originally to dress”), a secondary form of Middle High German . See smock.

The etymological relation to MLG "smuk" presents difficulty since the "g" is not easily explained.

Pronunciation

• enPR: smŭg, IPA^(key): /smʌɡ/
• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Adjective

smug (comparative smugger, superlative smuggest)

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

   Kate looked extremely smug this morning.

2. (obsolete) Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
   • Robynson (More's Utopia)

     They be so smug and smooth.

   • De Quincey

     the smug and scanty draperies of his style

   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     A young, smug, handsome holiness has no fellow.

Synonyms

• self-satisfied
• complacent
• See also Wikisaurus:arrogant

Derived terms

• smugly
• smugness

Translations

irritatingly pleased with oneself; self-satisfied

• Catalan: ufà (ca), petulant
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 得意 (zh) (déyì), 自滿 (zh), 自满 (zh) (zìmǎn)

• Czech: nafoukaný
• Dutch: zelfingenomen (nl)
• Finnish: omahyväinen, itseriittoinen (fi), itsetyytyväinen (fi)
• French: auto-satisfait (fr) m, suffisant (fr) m
• Georgian: თვითკმაყოფილი (tvitḳmaq̇opili)
• German: blasiert (de), eingebildet (de), selbstgefällig, süffisant (de), selbstzufrieden, dünkelhaft (de), arrogant (de), überheblich (de)
• Greek: αυτάρεσκος (el) m (aftáreskos)
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can

• Hungarian: önelégült (hu)
• Italian: compiaciuto m, autocompiaciuto m
• Japanese: 独り善がり (ja) (ひとりよがり, hitoriyogari)
• Maori: whakaī
• Norwegian: selvgod
• Portuguese: presunçoso (pt), convencido (pt)
• Punjabi: ਆਪਣੇ ਆਪ ਵਿੱਚ ਮਸਤ, ਮਨਮੌਜੀ (manmaujī)
• Russian: самодово́льный (ru) (samodovólʹnyj)
• Slovak: nafúkaný
• Spanish: ufano (es), engreído (es), petulante (es), creído (es)
• Swedish: självgod (sv), självbelåten

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.
   • Dryton

     Thus said, he smugged his beard, and stroked up fair.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for smug in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Further reading

• smug in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• smug in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• Gums, MGUs, gums, mugs

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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From the verb smyge

Alternative forms

• smau (Nynorsk also)

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.