Meanings
plural smouses · alternative smaus · alternative smause · alternative smouse · alternative smouch
- South AfricahistoricalA peddler.
- South AfricahistoricalA Jew from Germany or Eastern Europe.
present singular third person smouses · participle present smousing · participle past smoused · past smoused · alternative smaus · alternative smause · alternative smouse · alternative smouch
- South AfricahistoricalTo go about selling goods, as an itinerant peddler.
Not only South Africans, White and Black, but fortune hunters from Europe and America, Indian and Chinese labourers and traders, and Jews from the ghettoes (sic) and shtetles of Eastern Europe, who had come to 'smous' […]
2021, Anne Fuchs, Playing the Market, page 49
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Hebrewמֹשֶׁה“Moses”
- Yiddishמשה“Moses”
- Dutchsmous
- Afrikaanssmous
- Englishsmous
Borrowed from Afrikaans smous or Dutch smous, from a Yiddish word whose precise origin is uncertain. One theory is that it derives from Yiddish משה (moyshe, “Moses”), pronounced moushe in Western Yiddish, from Hebrew מֹשֶׁה (moshé, “Moses”).
More words from Afrikaans, Dutch, Yiddish
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
smous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smous
“smous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smous. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “smous,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/smous.
Source: smous on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.