Etymograph

English

smicker

Smicker comes from Middle English smiker ‘beautiful, beauteous, elegant, fair, tasteful’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *smey- ‘to smear, stroke, wipe, rub’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*smey-1‘to smear, stroke, wipe, rub’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smikraz1‘fine, elegant, delicate, tender’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smikr1‘fine, elegant’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150smicer1‘beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, neat, tasteful’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smiker1‘beautiful, beauteous, elegant, fair, tasteful’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590smicker1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English smicker
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Thomas Lodge, Corydon’s Song: “A smicker boy, a lither swain, Heigh ho, a…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*smey-Wiktionary, English smicker‘to smear, stroke, wipe, rub’uncertain
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*smikrazWiktionary, English smicker‘fine, elegant, delicate, tender’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*smikrWiktionary, English smicker‘fine, elegant’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150smicerWiktionary, English smicker‘beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, neat, tasteful’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500smikerWiktionary, English smicker‘beautiful, beauteous, elegant, fair, tasteful’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590smickerWiktionary, English smicker. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Thomas Lodge, Corydon’s Song: “A smicker boy, a lither swain, Heigh ho, a…”

The story

For the verb, compare Swedish smickra (‘to flatter, coax, wheedle, butter up’), Danish smigre (‘to flatter’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *smey- ‘to smear, stroke, wipe, rub’

smith, mirror, smile, admirable, comity, 2 more

Today it means

adj Elegant; fine; attractive, beautiful.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “smicker”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *smey- / smicker

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