smook

Forms

smook m (uncountable, no diminutive)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch smooc, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *smauki, a noun related to the verb Proto-Germanic *smeukaną (“to smoke”).^[1][2] The same word is Middle Low German smōk, Middle High German smouch (modern German Schmauch) and Old English smīec (“smoke, vapour”).^[2][3][4][5] De Vries derives it from a stem *smauk-, beside which a stem *smuk- gave smoke (“smell”) and smoca (“smoke”), the source of the English word smoke.^[2][3]

With a different final consonant, De Vries compares Irish and Armenian words for smoke and sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *meukh-.^[2] The verb smoken belongs to the same family.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest Middle Dutch quotation, from the north-eastern Netherlands in 1340, uses smooc without any unpleasant overtone, for a sweet scent rising from incense powder.^[4] By 1401 a Brabant text uses it for fumes and vapour, and in 1434 a Holland text compares gluttony, which sends smooc to the throat, with green wood that burns without flame and gives off smoke.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Kiliaan glosses smook with Latin vapor and fumus.^[4] In early modern Dutch it meant smoke in general (1633), the fumes of lamps (1746), and tobacco smoke, as in een pijpje smooks, a pipe of tobacco.^[5] In the south it also meant mist or haze (from 1511) and air laden with foul exhalations, a sense unknown in the north, and an 18th-century source uses it for a pit in which a fire was lit to dry hemp.^[5]

Today smook means thick smoke or vapour, or a dense layer of smoke.^[6][1] It passed into Negerhollands as smook “smoke, vapour”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1340 – Middle Dutch smooc “scent” is first recorded, in the north-eastern Netherlands.^[4]
• 1401 – A Brabant text uses it for fumes and vapour.^[4]
• 1434 – A Holland text uses it for thick smoke.^[4]
• 1511 – A southern text uses smoock for a mist that dims the sun.^[5]
• 1633 – Smook “smoke” is quoted beside damp “vapour”.^[5]
• 1746 – It is used for the fumes of oil lamps.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Thick smoke or vapour.^[6][1]
2. A dense layer of smoke, a pall.^[6]

Related words

• smoken
• English smoke
• German Schmauch

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 348
4. ^ a b c d e f g Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
6. ^ a b c Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org
7. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)