smear

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English smeren, also smiren,^[2][3] inherited from Old English smierwan, also smerian, smirwan and smyrian,^{[4][3][2][5][6]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną (“to spread grease on”).^[4][5][7] It is cognate with Old Norse smyrja (“to anoint”), Middle Low German smeren, Dutch smeren, Old High German smirwen (“to apply salve”), German schmieren, Swedish smörja and Danish smøre.^{[4][3][8][7][6]} The OED takes the Old English verb as formed on the noun smeoru (“fat, grease, ointment”),^[9] whose Proto-Germanic form Kroonen gives as Proto-Germanic *smerwa- (“butter, grease”),^[10] with cognates in Old Saxon smero, smero, smeer, Schmer, smjǫr (“butter”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌼𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐍂 (smairþr, “fatness”).^{[11][12][8][3]} The Swedish word for butter, smör, is the first part of smorgasbord.^[7] Etymonline and Klein trace the family to Proto-Indo-European *smeru- (“grease”),^[4][12] also the source of Ancient Greek μύρον (múron, “unguent, balsam”) and Old Irish smiur (“marrow”).^[4][12][7] Ayto also relates σμύρις (smúris, “polishing powder”), the source of emery,^[7] which Klein keeps apart.^[12] The noun in its old sense "fat, grease" continued the Old English noun as smere;^[11][12] its modern senses are formed from the verb.^[4][9][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To anoint with oil as a religious ceremony, and to rub a part of the body with oil or grease: both in the Old English Vespasian Psalter.^[9] Etymonline notes that the verb was used especially of anointing, but already in Old English also meant to spread something thick or sticky over a surface.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb also meant to prepare a dead body with ointments before burial (until about 1325) and to treat a wound with a salve;^[9] from about 1535 it was used of rubbing sheep with a mixture against wet and vermin.^[9] The sense of anointing survived only with a contemptuous force.^[9] The figurative use, to sully with something base or to try to discredit a reputation, appears in 1549 in Coverdale's translation of Erasmus,^[9] and Word Origins dates it to the mid 16th century;^[14] Etymonline dates the sense "to assault a public reputation" to 1835, and smear-word, a word used only as invective, to 1938.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as to overspread with something viscous and adhesive.^[15] The noun meant fat, grease or ointment from Old English until 1648;^[9][11] the sense "a mark or stain made by smearing" is recorded from 1611, in Cotgrave.^[9][4] Later uses include a sample smeared on a slide for the microscope (1903),^[9][4] a glissando on a trombone in jazz (1926),^[9] and a slanderous remark or attack, originally in the United States (1943).^[9][16] In 18th-century cant a smear was a painter or plasterer,^[9][16] and in American slang the verb meant to beat up from 1899 and to thrash or destroy by bombing from 1935.^[16][9] In Southern Africa it is used of coating the floor of a hut with a mixture of cow dung and water (1838).^[9] Etymonline dates smear for cream cheese spread on a bagel, after Yiddish shmir, to 1999.^[4]

Timeline

• Old English – verb, to anoint; to rub with oil or grease.^[9][4]
• Old English – noun smeoru, fat, grease, ointment (obsolete by 1648).^[9][11]
• c. 1200 – the Middle English noun smere, fat, grease, in the Ormulum.^[11][4]
• 1549 – figurative, to sully or discredit.^[9]
• 1611 – noun, a mark or smudge made by smearing.^[9][4]
• 1725 – cant, a painter or plasterer.^[9][16]
• 1835 – to attack a person's reputation.^[4]
• 1838 – to smudge or rub out, in Dickens's Oliver Twist.^[9]
• 1903 – a sample smeared on a slide for microscopic examination.^[9][4]
• 1926 – in jazz, a glissando, especially on the trombone.^[9]
• 1943 – a slanderous remark or attack.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover or mark a surface with something greasy, sticky or dirty: He smeared the hinges with oil.^[17][3][9]
2. To spread a substance thickly or carelessly over something: She smeared paint across the canvas.^[17][3][9]
3. To blur or smudge something by rubbing: The rain smeared the ink on the envelope.^[17][9]
4. To damage someone's reputation with false or unproven charges; to slander.^[17][3][9]
5. (US slang) To defeat completely; to thrash.^[17][9]
6. (intransitive) To become smeared or smudged.^[17]

Noun

1. A greasy or dirty mark or stain; a smudge.^[17][3][9]
2. A slanderous attack or remark; also used before a noun, as in smear campaign.^[17][9]
3. A small amount of material spread on a microscope slide for examination, as in a smear test.^[17][3][9]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1648) Fat, grease or ointment.^[9][3]

Word family

• smearer
• unsmeared
• besmear
• smeary
• smear test
• smear campaign
• pap smear

Related words

• emery
• smorgasbord

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins