smirr - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
smirr, smur, smurr n A fine rain, slight shower. Hence vb To drizzle. [origin obscure; oed smur n ‘fine rain; a drizzle of rain’ 1808→, dialect and Scottish; snd smirr n1 ‘a fine rain, drizzle, occasionally also of sleet or snow’ 1818→]
Ulst.:
1861 Hume Rabbin’s Ollminick 9 Sometimes there’s a long set o’ saft weather, spittin’ an’ rainin’ an’ smurrin’ even on.
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 94 ‘a smurr of rain’ = a slight shower.
1891 Simmons Armagh Words and Phrases 16 smur = fine, thick rain.
1942 Bangor Words 72 smirr = a slight shower of rain; to cover with a slight haze.
1983 Marshall Drumlister 52 The tree-tops shivered in a breeze grown cold, / And, in a smur of rain, the Night drew nigh.
1990 McIntyre Some Handlin’ 70 = a thick drizzle or rain.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 223 = to drizzle: ‘smurrin rain’.
U.S.:
1916 Smith Cape Cod Notes 264 A similarly interesting term is employed by the weather-wise when a slight haze begins to dull a clear sky or dim a bright sun: ‘Guess we’re in for a bit o’ rain; it’s smurrin’ up to the eas’ard; and when it gets smurry with the wind this way, it’s sure to rain’.
1928 Chapman Happy Mt 313 smirr = Scotch mist, fine misty rain.
