smuggle

Etymology

It is apparently borrowed from Low German smukkeln, also smuggeln, or Dutch smokkelen (“to smuggle”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The earlier English form smuckle matches smukkeln and the Dutch verb, and the later smuggle matches smuggeln, German schmuggeln, Danish smugle, Norwegian smugla and Swedish smuggla; the OED finds the origin of the word, and the relation of the two types, unclear.^[2][7] Barnhart and Etymonline see a frequentative formation from a verb meaning "to sneak", comparing Dutch smuigen,^[3][8] and Wiktionary traces the group to Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to creep, slip through”).^[1] Klein and Merriam-Webster relate it to Old English smūgan (“to creep”) and to smock,^[7][9] and Ayto suggests that the Low German verb may come from the same source as smock.^[10] Weekley connected it with smug, with the idea of secrecy.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To convey goods secretly into or out of a country to avoid customs duties or a prohibition: before 1687, in William Petty's Political Arithmetick.^[2][3][9] The form smuckle is recorded slightly earlier, and the agent noun smuggler earlier still, from 1661 as smuckellor.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it narrowly as importing or exporting goods without paying the customs.^[12] The intransitive use, to practise smuggling, followed in 1697, in Dampier.^[2] From 1768, in Thomas Gray, the verb was used of getting hold of something by stealth;^[2] from 1783 it was used of conveying anything secretly.^[2][8] Carlyle used it in 1865 for making off stealthily.^[2] In Scots smuggle up meant to hush something up.^[13]

Timeline

• 1661 – the agent noun, as smuckellor.^[3]
• 1687 – to import or export goods illegally.^[2][3][9]
• 1697 – intransitive, to practise smuggling.^[2]
• 1768 – to get possession of something by stealth.^[2]
• 1783 – to convey something secretly.^[2][8]
• 1865 – intransitive, to make off stealthily.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring goods into or take them out of a country secretly, against the law or without paying customs duties: The gang smuggled watches across the border.^[14][9][2]
2. To bring or take something or someone secretly, against the rules: She smuggled a puppy into the dormitory.^[14][9][2]
3. To practise smuggling.^[2]
4. To conceal or hide something away.^[14]

Word family

• smuggler
• unsmuggled

Related words

• smock
• smug

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford separate an obsolete or dialect verb smuggle, to cuddle or fondle (1679–1719), of obscure origin, compared with snuggle;^[2][4] in Somerset and Devon it meant to hug violently or smother with caresses.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b 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)
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins