smicker

adjective /ˈsmɪkə(ɹ)/

1. Elegant; fine; attractive, beautiful.

   archaic

   The fond addiction to such vanity; Regardful of his honour he forsook The smicker use of court-humanity.

   No, his deep-reaching spirit could not brook

2. Amorous; wanton.

   archaic

3. Handsome; spruce; smart, dapper.

   archaic

   Heigh ho, a smicker swain, That his love was wanton fain, […]

   A smicker boy, a lither swain,

Where it comes from

From Middle English smiker, from Old English smicer, smicor (“beauteous, beautiful, elegant, fair, fine, neat, tasteful”), from Proto-West Germanic *smikr, from Proto-Germanic *smikraz (“fine, elegant, delicate, tender”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *smey- (“to smear, stroke, wipe, rub”). Cognate with Middle High German smecker (“neat, elegant”), Ancient Greek σμικρός (smikrós), μικρός (mikrós, “small, short”), Lithuanian smeigti (“to lunge, thrust, jab”), Latin mīca (“crumb, morsel, bit”). For the verb, compare Swedish smickra (“to flatter, coax, wheedle, butter up”), Danish smigre (“to flatter”).

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry smicker (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← smellfungussmidgen →

Another random word More words starting with S