smug

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Too pleased with yourself or your own cleverness, in a way that annoys others.

   He gave a smug smile when his prediction turned out to be right.

Simplified etymology

Smug was borrowed in the mid-16th century from German smuk, meaning “pretty.” In English it originally described someone as neat or spruce and could also mean smooth; its modern implication of self-satisfied complacency developed later, though the timing is uncertain.

Originally "spruce, neat," from Low German smuk (“pretty”), from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”), although the g of the English word is not easily explained. The ultimate source should be Proto-West Germanic *smeugan (“to crawl, creep”). From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). Compare also Middle High German gesmuc (“ornament”) and smücken (“to dress, to adorn”), both ultimately from smiegen (“to press to, insert, wrap, to nestle”), hence German schmiegen, Schmuck and schmücken. The adjective schmuck…

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