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Etymology and origin of the English word smudge

English has two main words spelled smudge, one for soiling and smearing and one for smoke and smouldering, which the OED and the Shorter Oxford treat separately.[1][2]

Pronunciation

smudge1 smear, soil

Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1430 Freemasonry
Inherited from
Middle English smogen

Etymology

The word for smearing and soiling is inherited from Middle English smogen (“to soil, stain, blacken”),[4][5][6][7] of unknown origin.[1][4][8][9][10] Barnhart traces the development of the form through later spellings of 1565, 1604 and 1624.[4] Sources compare smutch, which is recorded later,[1][8] and smooch.[8] Etymonline also compares Middle English smod (“filth”), Middle Dutch besmodden and Middle Low German smudden,[7] and Partridge compares Middle High German smutz (“grease, dirt”), calling the relationship of these words obscure.[11] Klein calls it a later variant of smutch and relates it to smut,[12] and the Shorter Oxford thinks it probably symbolic, comparing smirch and smut.[2] Skeat derived it from a Scandinavian source, comparing Danish smuds (“smut, dirt”), and Weekley wondered whether it belonged with smut or smoke.[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To soil, stain or blacken: about 1430, in the Middle English poem the OED cites as Freemasonry.[1] Barnhart finds it probably before 1425, implied in the gerund smoginge.[4] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant making something dirty.[1] By the early 17th century it could be used figuratively of sullying a person's name.[2] The noun, formed from the verb, appears only in the 1770s for a dirty mark, especially one left by trying to rub out an earlier mark.[1][4][2] In the 19th century the verb came to mean rubbing out or laying on in a smearing way,[1][7] and the noun a blurred, indistinct mass.[1] Colliery use gave it the sense of very small coal,[1][2] and 20th-century slang used it for a photograph or for a street or press photographer.[1][2] In the English Dialect Dictionary it is to soil or begrime, from Ireland and Cumberland to Somerset.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1430 – to soil, stain or blacken.[1]
  • early 17th century – figuratively, to defile or sully.[2]
  • before 1774 – noun, a dirty mark or stain.[1] Etymonline dates it by 1768.[7]
  • 1823 – the scum of paint.[1]
  • 1830 – a smeary condition or substance.[1]
  • 1864 – to rub out or lay on in a smearing way; also, to bungle.[1]
  • 1871 – a blurred, indistinct mass.[1]
  • 1883 – very small coal, slack.[1]
  • 1902 – to make or leave a stain.[1]
  • before 1931 – slang, a photograph, especially one taken by a street or press photographer.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To smear or blur something, or to become smeared or blurred: The rain smudged the ink on her letter.[16][6][2]
  2. To mark with a dirty stain; to soil or begrime.[6][1]
  3. To sully a person's character or record.[6][2]
  4. To rub, wipe or daub something on or out in a smeary way.[6][1]

Noun

  1. A dirty mark or smear.[16][6][1]
  2. A blurred, indistinct form or area: The town was a grey smudge on the horizon.[16][6][1]
  3. A figurative stain on one's reputation or conduct.[6][2]
  4. (local) Very small coal; slack.[1][2]
  5. (slang) A photograph, or a street or press photographer.[1][2]

Word family

  • smudgy
  • smudgily
  • smudginess
  • smudgeless
  • smudgedly
  • smudger

smudge2 smoke, smoulder

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1599 Nashe, Lenten Stuffe

Etymology

The word for smoke and smouldering is of unknown origin.[1][2][7][17] Etymonline suggests that it is perhaps related to smudge1,[7] and Partridge compares Scottish Gaelic smùid (“smoke”).[11] The noun comes from the verb.[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cure herring by smoking: 1599, in Nashe's Lenten Stuffe, a sense found only then.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

After the herring-curing sense died out, the word reappears in the 18th century as a noun for a suffocating smoke, in a letter of 1767 from Mason to Gray.[1][7] The northern glossary of Brockett has the verb "to smoulder" in 1825,[1] and the English Dialect Dictionary records this from Ireland, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire, and in America.[15] In North America the word became tied to the smoky fire lit against mosquitoes: the noun for such a heap of burning material is dated 1806 by Etymonline and 1842 by the OED,[7][1] and the verb for filling a tent with its smoke from 1860.[1][7] Such fires also came to protect plants from frost.[16][2] Smoking pottery to give it a shiny black finish is recorded from 1936, among Indigenous peoples of North America,[1] and burning sage or cedar for purification from the late 20th century;[2] Etymonline has smudge-stick for such an object by 1908.[7]

Timeline

  • 1599 – to cure herring by smoking (obsolete).[1][2]
  • 1767 – noun, a suffocating smoke.[1][7]
  • 1825 – to smoulder.[1]
  • 1842 – a smoky heap of burning material, usually against mosquitoes.[1] Etymonline dates it from 1806.[7]
  • 1860 – in North America, to fill a tent or the like with smoke, or to drive off insects with it.[1]
  • 1903 – smudge-pot.[7]
  • 1936 – to smoke pottery for a black shiny finish.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly North American) A smoky fire lit to drive off insects or to protect plants from frost.[16][6][2]
  2. Thick, suffocating smoke.[6][1][2]

Verb

  1. (chiefly North American) To fill an area with smoke to drive away insects or guard against frost.[16][2]
  2. (chiefly Canadian) To wave smoke over oneself, or to burn sage or cedar, in a cleansing ritual of some indigenous peoples.[16][2]
  3. (dialect) To smoulder.[1][15]

Word family

  • smudge pot
  • smutch
  • smut
  • smirch

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins enter the smoke senses under the same word as the smear senses.[6][16] A Scots verb smudge, to laugh quietly or to oneself, is recorded from 1808 and is of unknown origin,[1][6] with a noun for a slight sign of laughter in Carlyle.[1] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland, Northumberland and the Lake District.[15] A verb smudge, to make smart or trim, appears only in the late 16th century.[1]

References

  1. ^ 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 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  11. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
Cite this entry

“Smudge.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/smudge. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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