smut

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   sexually explicit or obscene writing, images, or other material, especially when regarded as having little artistic value

   The publisher rejected the manuscript as crude smut rather than serious fiction.

2. 2
   noun

   soot, dirt, or a black flake or mark produced by it

   A smut from the coal smoke settled on his clean collar.

3. 3
   noun

   a destructive fungal disease of cereal crops that forms dark masses of spores, or a fungus that causes this disease

   The farmer treated the seed to prevent smut from spreading through the wheat.

From Middle English smutten ("to defile or make dirty"), related to German Schmutz ("dirt") and schmutzen ("to stain"). The early noun meant a black stain or particle of soot; the senses involving plant disease and obscene material developed from the ideas of blackening and defilement.

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