smous

English

Alternative forms

• smaus, smause, smouse, smouch

Etymology

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”).

Noun

smous (plural smouses)

1. (chiefly South Africa, historical) A peddler.
2. (chiefly South Africa, historical) A Jew from Germany or Eastern Europe.

Verb

smous (third-person singular simple present smouses, present participle smousing, simple past and past participle smoused)

1. (South Africa, historical) To go about selling goods, as an itinerant peddler.
   • 2021, Anne Fuchs, Playing the Market, page 49:

     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' […]

Anagrams

• Musso, musos, soums, sumos

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch smous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smœu̯s/

Noun

smous (plural smouse)

1. A hawker.

Dutch

Etymology

From Yiddish משה (moyshe, “Moses”), pronounced moushe in Western Yiddish, from Hebrew מֹשֶׁה (moshé, “Moses”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smɑu̯s/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: smous
• Rhymes: -ɑu̯s

Noun

smous m (plural smousen or smouzen, diminutive smousje n)

1. (ethnic slur, offensive) Jew [from mid 17th c.]
2. a small breed of terrier with a light to dark beige fur, native to the Netherlands [from mid 19th c.]
   • 1848 May 11, Advertisement 7018, Algemeen Handelsblad, No. 5136, page 4.

     VERMIST : Den 9den Mei, een KLEINE JONGE HOND, Poesbaard of Smousje, kleur Lichtbruin met eenig Zwart doorgeslagen, voor aan de hals en onderste gedeelte der vier pooten wit,luisterende naar den naam van DJALMA.

     MISSING: The 9th of Mai, one SMALL YOUNG DOG, "Cat beard" or little Smous (indication of breed), color: Light Brown with some Black coming through, the front of the neck and the down part of the four legs White, listens to the name DJALMA.

   Synonym: smoushond

Derived terms

• smoushond

Descendants

• Afrikaans: smous