Smoorikin

History in a Word. The sweet Shaetlan smoorikin has had a bit of a journey in its meaning. It is composed of the Scots smuirich + the Middle Low German -kin. The Scots smuirich means 'kiss, caress' and is an intensive form of smuir 'smother, stifle, choke' which ultimately goes back to the Proto-Germanic *smurōną 'to suffocate, strangle'. The diminutive ending -kin indicates that something is small. The Low Germanic ending ultimately goes back to the Proto-Germanic diminutive *ikīną. So smoorikins have gone from being small suffocations to sweet kisses.

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We have chosen the spelling -kin due to the unstressed nature of the suffix which makes the pronunciation slightly different from that of eg ken 'to know'.

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The word scomfish is attested from 1768 with the meaning 'to suffocate, stifle, choke'. It is a shortened form of discomfish (attested from 1488), which itself is an alteration of discomfit, which in turn comes from Anglo-Norman descounfit 'to destroy', ultimately from Latin dis-conficere 'to (completely) destroy'.