smurf

Meanings

Noun

• A blue pixie with white stocking cap, from the media franchise The Smurfs.
• A smurf account.
• A smurf attack.

Verb

• To structure a deposit; to split a large financial transaction into smaller ones so as to avoid scrutiny.
• To carry out a smurf attack against someone.
• To use a smurf account.

Origin

• , from French schtroumpf, a word that was created by Peyo based on German Strumpf, either simply because it sounds funny to the French ear or based on a regional German use for “idiot”. Armand van Raalte was an employee for the Belgian publisher of Peyo's stories who felt that schtroumpf would not have the same effect in Dutch, so he tried to find a simple word that could be used both as a noun and a verb. The result was smurf. In other languages, the term was similarly altered; compare the translations below.