smugificateSmug has an interesting history. In the OED1 (
link) there are two earlier meanings "Of male persons: Trim, neat, spruce, smart" and "Of things: Smooth, clean". (I do like the capitalization of the first word of a list after a colon which is not a mistake, but an editorial choice.) It is the first gloss has citations from the 16th century onwards. Somewhere around the middle of the 19th century, smug starts to become a pejorative term, and gets its "exhibiting excessive complacency, self-satisfied" meaning which seems now to have replaced the older ones. (Both the OED1 and A-H suggest a possible etymological connection with German
Schmuck 'jewel; adornment' (not to be confused with Yiddish
shmak, English
schmuck).)
Of the verbs ending in -
ficate (
link), most are amplifications of other verbs ending in -
fy, and those seem back formations from nouns in -
fication. The one noun in -
ficate which is common is
certificate (though this may simply be a case of a nouned verb becoming more common and most would use
certify for the verb anyway). The endings -
fy and -
ficate usually have the meaning 'to make', though in
pontificate, it has more of the meaning 'to act like (a pope)'. (Cf.
orient,
orientate, and
orientation: there's something going on there when coining or forming Latinate words many go for the sesquipedalian.)
By far, my favorite citation is: "[T]he smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies" [William Pearson] (
link). (I couldn't track down the author or the work quoted. Does anybody know who and what?) And this cartoon is funny (
link).
