Etymology

smeary

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Today it means: Having or showing smears. Full definition →

Middle English *smery ← Old English smeoruwiġ ← Proto-West Germanic *smerwig
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*smerwig
  2. Old English · inherited fromsmeoruwiġ“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”
  3. Middle English · inherited from*smery
  4. English todaysmeary

From Middle English *smery, *smeri, from Old English smeoruwiġ (“fatty, greasy, unctious, smeary”), from Proto-West Germanic *smerwig, equivalent to smear + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.