smoke

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /sməʊk/, US /smoʊk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English smoke,^[2][3] inherited from Old English smoca (“smoke”) (rare),^[4][2] related to smēocan (“to give off smoke”),^[4][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *smuk-,^[4] the source also of Dutch smook, Middle High German smouch and German Schmauch,^[4][2] from Proto-Indo-European *smeug- (“to smoke; smoke”),^[4][2] the root also of Armenian mux, Greek smýkhein “to smoulder”, Welsh mwg “smoke” and Lithuanian smáugti “to choke”.^[4][2][3] The verb is Old English smocian, from the noun.^[4][2] The more usual Old English noun was smēc, which became dialectal smeech.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The visible fumes from burning substances: about 1000 in the OED,^[6] late Old English in Etymonline.^[4]

Semantic evolution

A puff, cloud or column of smoke is from the late 14th century.^[4][6] Figuratively, of something unsubstantial, it is from the 1540s, and an obscuring medium from the 1560s.^[4] The proverb no fire without smoke dates from the mid-15th century.^[4] The verb “to drive out with smoke” and “to cure bacon or fish in smoke” are from the 1590s.^[4] Of tobacco, the verb is first recorded in 1604, in James I's Counterblast to Tobacco,^[4] when one could also be said to drink tobacco.^[7] A spell of smoking is from 1835 and a cigarette from 1882.^[4] The Smoke or the Big Smoke, for a city, especially London, is from 1848,^[6][7] go up in smoke from 1933,^[4] and the smoke-filled room of American politics was popularized in the 1920 presidential election.^[4] A smoking gun, incriminating evidence, came to prominence in the Watergate scandal.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – fumes from burning.^[6]
• late 14th century – a puff of smoke.^[4]
• 1540s – something unsubstantial.^[4]
• 1590s – verb, to cure in smoke.^[4]
• 1604 – to smoke tobacco.^[4]
• 1848 – the Smoke.^[6]
• 1882 – a cigarette.^[4]
• 1933 – go up in smoke.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The cloud of particles and gases given off by burning material.
2. Something like smoke; a haze or mist.
3. Something insubstantial or obscuring.
4. An act of smoking tobacco, or a cigarette.

Verb

1. To draw in and blow out the smoke of a cigarette, cigar or pipe, especially habitually.
2. To give off smoke.
3. To preserve meat or fish by exposing it to smoke.
4. To drive out by smoke: smoke out.

Word family

• smokable
• smokeless
• smokelike
• chain-smoke
• smoker
• smoking
• smoke out

Related words

• smog
• smoko
• smoky quartz
• smoky
• smoulder
• reek

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b 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 q r s t u v w Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press