schmuddeln

German

Etymology

Borrowed from German Low German smuddeln, iterative of smudden (to soil, smear, sully), itself probably an s-mobile derivative of the root underlying modern German Moder (decomposing mass). Attested since the 17th century.[1]

Pronunciation

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Verb

schmuddeln (weak, third-person singular present schmuddelt, past tense schmuddelte, past participle geschmuddelt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (colloquial, derogatory, intransitive) to work sloppily and make things dirty in the process thereof
  2. (colloquial, derogatory, intransitive) to become dirty
  3. (colloquial, derogatory, intransitive, impersonal) to rain and be cold

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “schmuddeln”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN

Further reading