different between cowardly vs smug

English

Etymology

From Middle English *cowardli (adjective) and couardli (adverb), equivalent to coward +? -ly. Displaced native Old English earg.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ka??dli/

Adjective

cowardly (comparative cowardlier or more cowardly, superlative cowardliest or most cowardly)

1. Showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cowardly

   • 1780, Edmund Burke, speech at The Guildhall, in Bristol

     The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face.

Derived terms

• cowardlily

Translations

Adverb

cowardly (comparative more cowardly, superlative most cowardly)

1. (archaic) In the manner of a coward, cowardlily.

Translations

English

Etymology

Possibly from Middle Low German smuk (“lithe, delicate, neat, trim”) although the g of the English word is not easily explained. From the Low German derived also North Frisian smok, Danish smuk and Swedish smukk (now obsolete or dialectal). The ultimate source should be Proto-Germanic *smeugan?.

Compare 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, however, was borrowed from Low German. See smock for more.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sm?g, IPA^(key): /sm??/
• Rhymes: -??

Adjective

smug (comparative smugger, superlative smuggest)

1. Irritatingly pleased with oneself, offensively self-complacent, self-satisfied.

2. Showing smugness, showing self-complacency, self-satisfaction.

3. (obsolete) Studiously neat or nice, especially in dress; spruce; affectedly precise; smooth and prim.
   • 1556, Raphe Robynson, More’s Utopia: The English Translation thereof

     They be so smug and smooth.

   • 1828, Thomas De Quincey, Elements of Rhetoric (published in Blackwood's Magazine)

     the smug and scanty draperies of his style

   • A young, smug, handsome holiness has no fellow.

Synonyms

• gloaty
• self-satisfied
• complacent
• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

Derived terms

• smugly
• smugness

Translations

Verb

smug (third-person singular simple present smugs, present participle smugging, simple past and past participle smugged)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make smug, or spruce.

   • Thus said, he smug'd his beard, and stroked up fair.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To seize; to confiscate.
3. (obsolete, transitive, slang) To hush up.

Further reading

• smug in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• smug in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Gums, MGUs, gums, mugs

Danish

Etymology

From Danish smyge

Noun

smug

1. in secret, hidden

Derived terms

• i smug

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• smau (Nynorsk also)

Etymology

From the verb smyge

Noun

smug n (definite singular smuget, indefinite plural smug, definite plural smuga or smugene)

1. an alley or alleyway (usually for pedestrians)

References

• “smug” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smuk/

Noun

smug m inan

1. A narrow strip of meadow or, less commonly, of a field or forest.
2. Any meadow, especially one that is marshy.
3. (archaic) Alternative form of smuga (“streak, trail, contrail”).

Declension

Noun

smug f

1. genitive plural of smuga

Further reading

• smug in Polish dictionaries at PWN