smeddum
nounEtymology From earlier smitham, smytham, from Middle English smedma, from Old English smedma, smeodema, smedema (“fine flour, pollen meal, meal”).
1
Fine powder; flour.
2
The powder or finest part of ground malt.
4
Scotland Zest, energy; pluck; sagacity; quickness of apprehension; gumption; spirit; mettle.
- “Don’t like the name, don’t like it. There’s no smeddum to it. Besides, it makes me think of my Aunt Jinny. She called her three girls Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith didn’t believe in anything—Hope was a born pessimist—and Charity was a miser.[…]”1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter XVI, in Rainbow Valley:
- maybe there were better folk far in Segget, but few enough with smeddum like his.1933, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Cloud Howe (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 271:
5
Northern England, UK, Dialectal Ore small enough to pass through the wire bottom of a sieve.
6
Northern England, UK, Dialectal A layer of clay or shale between two beds of coal.
- Derived terms
- smiddum-tails