smarm

Meanings

Noun

• Smarmy language or behavior.
• A style of fan fiction in which characters are warm and caring toward each other but without sexual overtones.

Verb

• To fawn, to be unctuous.
• To address in a fawning and unctuous manner.

Origin

• The noun is attested since 1914, from the colloquial verb smalm, attested since 1847, of unknown origin, perhaps somehow suggestive of the action. Verbal meaning "to smear with flattery" is from 1902.