smug

Meanings

Adjective

• Irritatingly pleased with oneself; offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.
• Showing smugness; showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.
• Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.

Verb

• To make smug, or spruce.
• To seize; to confiscate.
• To hush up.

Related

Similar words

• gloaty
• self-satisfied
• complacent

Origin

• Possibly from Middle Low German smuk 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 and smücken, both ultimately from smiegen, hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.