different between smudge vs smidgen

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /sm?d?/
• Rhymes: -?d?

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Chambers 1908: "Swedish smuts dirt, Danish smuds smut, German Schmutz"”)

Noun

smudge (countable and uncountable, plural smudges)

1. A blemish or smear, especially a dark or sooty one.

2. Dense smoke, such as that used for fumigation.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grose to this entry?)

3. (US) A heap of damp combustibles partially ignited and burning slowly, placed on the windward side of a house, tent, etc. to keep off mosquitoes or other insects.
4. (paganism, especially in the phrase "smudge stick" = "stick of incense") A quantity of herbs used in suffumigation.

Synonyms

• (blemish, smear): blur, smear, stain

Derived terms

• smudge attack

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English smogen.

Verb

smudge (third-person singular simple present smudges, present participle smudging, simple past and past participle smudged)

1. To obscure by blurring; to smear.
2. To soil or smear with dirt.
3. To use dense smoke to protect from insects.
4. To stifle or smother with smoke.
5. (paganism, intransitive) To burn herbs as a cleansing ritual (suffumigation).
6. (paganism, transitive) To subject to ritual burning of herbs (suffumigation, smudging).
   • 2013, Rachel Patterson, Pagan Portals - Hoodoo: Folk Magic ?ISBN:

     This is easily done using incense to smudge yourself or taking a cleansing bath. To smudge your body use an incense mixture such as sandalwood, lavender, frankincense or myrrh.

Synonyms

• (to obscure by blurring): blur, smear
• (to soil or smear with dirt): smutch, soil
• (to use smoke against insects): fumigate

Translations

Related terms

• smudgily
• smudginess
• smudgy

Anagrams

• Mudges, degums, mudges

English

Alternative forms

• smidge, smidgeon, smidget, smidgin

Etymology

Likely based on a variant of smeddum (“fine powder”), influenced by Scots smitch (“stain, speck”). Confer Northumbrian dialectal English smiddum (“small particle of lead ore; smitham”). Scots smitch may derive from an unattested synonym of Old English sm?tan (“to daub, smear, smudge”): *sm?cgan (“to soil, stain, taint, blacken”). If so, then cognate with smudge.

Alternate etymology connects smidgeon with Scottish Gaelic smidin (“small syllable”), though this is highly improbable considering the implied semantic shift that would have to have occurred.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sm?d???n/
• Rhymes: -?d??n, -?d??n

Noun

smidgen (plural smidgens)

1. A very small quantity or amount.

   Synonyms: hair's breadth; see also Thesaurus:modicum

Usage notes

Some cookbooks and manufacturers of kitchen measurement sets have attempted to define a smidgen for recipes. Anything between ¹?₂₅ and ¹?₄₈ of a teaspoon may be found, ¹?₃₂ being perhaps the most commonly used. Other commonly used measures for small amounts include tad, dash, pinch, and drop. There seems to be some consensus of tad being the largest in this set and a smidgen being larger than a drop but smaller than a pinch.

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Demings, Dengism