▪ I. smouse, n.
(smaʊz)
[ad. Du. smous Jew, usurer, supposed to be the same word as G. dial. schmus talk, patter, ad. Jewish schmuoss, Heb. sh'mūﻋōth tales, news, the reference being to the persuasive eloquence of Jewish pedlars. Cf. smouch n.2]
† 1. slang. A Jew. Obs.
| 1705 tr. Bosman's Guinea 190 They are as Impertinent and Noisie as the Smouse or German Jews at their Synagogue at Amsterdam. 1761 Colman Genius, Prose on Sev. Occas. (1787) I. 35 [Earring-] bobs or drops.., which also the insinuating Smouse soon provided for her. 1785 C. Macklin Man of World ii. 30, I honour the smouse;..it was devilish clever—the Jew distilling the Beeshop's brains. |
2. S. Afr. An itinerant trader. Also attrib.
| 1850 R. G. Cumming Hunter's Life S. Africa (1902) 13/2 Here we met a ‘smouse’, or trader, coming down the country. 1883 Olive Schreiner Story Afr. Farm ii. iii, A spray of orange-blossom which she had bought from a smouse. 1890 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Nov. 112, I..did a little in the ‘smouse’ line. |
Hence ˈsmousing vbl. n. Also ˈsmouser.
| c 1876 Sir B. Frere in J. E. Carlyle S. Africa & Mission Fields (1878) 103 This process of smousing, as it is termed in local slang. 1903 E. Glanville Diamond Seekers 225 We are smousers (traders), said Amos. |
▪ II. smouse, v.
(smaʊz)
Also 8 smouze.
[app. ad. G. schmausen (LG. smûsen) to feast, to drink or eat luxuriously.]
a. intr. To feast. b. trans. To eat up, consume, as a delicacy.
| 1775 Election Ball. 64 Let me, my dear, quaff my Beer, Smouze and carouze. 1840 J. H. Frere Aristophanes' Acharnians Wks. III. 50 Some that require Quickly to be broil'd, devour'd and smoused, On the spot, piping hot. |