Etymology From smut + -y. Related to German schmutzig (“filthy, dirty, smutty”).
1
Soiled with smut; blackened, dirty.
She caught up the corner of her skirt and lifted the smutty coffee-pot from the stove.1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Vintage, published 1993, page 62:
Yechiel Szeintuch, a professor of Yiddish literature at the Hebrew University, rejects any link between the smutty Stalags and the writings of K. Tzetnik as “an original sin.” He insists K. Tzetnik’s work was based on reality.2007 September 6, Isabel Kershner, “Israel’s Unexpected Spinoff From a Holocaust Trial”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021:
And what was it only one of the smutty yankee pictures Terry borrows off of Corny Kelleher. Secrets for enlarging your private parts.1922 February, James Joyce, “[The Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
Prayter said with a smile to the faces looking down, "Rilly—this train's a joke, isn't it!" A wag yelled, "Yes—a smutty one!" With raucous laughter in his ears, the parson turned and looked for Lace, feeling rather lonely.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XI, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 178:
1 more example
Aarfy's buxom trollop had vanished with her smutty cameo ring, and Nurse Duckett was ashamed of him because he had refused to fly more combat missions and would cause a scandal.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 433:
Etymology From smut + -y. Related to German schmutzig (“filthy, dirty, smutty”).
1
To make dirty; to soil.
[…] but went on smuttying her face and fingers at her little table, so littered with powder and blue and whitey-brown serpent cases that it looked like a Lilliputian arsenal.1870 September 1, “Episodes in an Obscure Life”, in The Sunday Magazine, page 713: