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My local dictionary supplies this definition:

having or showing an excessive pride in oneself or one's achievements

I was recently told by someone that, "It is only 'smug' if it isn't literally true."

We had a lengthy argument but the dictionary definition above didn't clear it up for us since it doesn't talk about correctness. Can someone say something correct or literally true but still be smug about it?

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  • Please cite the dictionary entry. Compare with other online resources. Please do some background research!
    – Kris
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 6:12
  • Sorry, your friend has a point, though is not quite right. I am not not posting an answer -- I'm smug about it.
    – Kris
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 6:18
  • Sadly, it won't be challenged, neither in Syria nor abroad — the regime knows this now with certainty and can afford to be smug about its ...; As a cognitive scientist I can afford to be smug about common sense being true (thought is different from language) and linguistic determinism being a ...
    – Kris
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 6:22
  • @Kris: It was just the local dictionary I grabbed to look up the word. None of the other dictionaries I checked answers this question. I don't understand what you wanted me to do.
    – MrHen
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 19:28
  • Your friend was being facetious and not literal. It's like saying "it's only a crime if you get caught." Of course, if you do an illegal thing, it's crime whether you are caught or not. What you friend was trying to say, perhaps jokingly, was that one shouldn't use the word "smug," with its associated negative connotations, when one is correct.
    – JohnnyApplesauce
    Commented Sep 24, 2020 at 16:00

5 Answers 5

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Smug is an attitude; correctness has nothing to do with it:

"the smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies” ( William Pearson)

AHED's definition, which mentions nothing of correctness:

smug, adj.: Exhibiting or feeling great or offensive satisfaction with oneself or with one's situation; self-righteously complacent

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  • self-righteous does have that "correctness" character in it.
    – Kris
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 6:15
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Your dictionary is correct. Your friend isn't. You should smugly show him the dictionary.

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  • Actually, he showed me the dictionary and said it was obvious that he was correct.
    – MrHen
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 16:08
  • Sometimes we could be mistaken in our inferences. Check more dictionary entries and usage examples.
    – Kris
    Commented Jan 18, 2014 at 6:17
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Smug not only does not imply the falsity of what is boasted about but also implies its truth; otherwise there is nothing to boast about in the first place.

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    I think people can be mistakingly smug if they think they are correct about something.
    – MrHen
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 16:07
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    I think this is a fine point of usage that dictionaries are unlikely to cover, but broadly speaking I'd expect the vast majority of cases where someone is called smug are in contexts where that person is in fact correct. If you can't win the actual argument (because he's right), you can at least denigrate something about him, to avoid feeling totally crushed.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 17:52
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    @MrHen: I'm sure that was a typo, but even "mistakenly smug" gets only two hits in Google Books - and one of them implies it's an odd thing to write, because it puts "mistakenly" in brackets.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 22:44
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I would say that the definition proves you are right, since otherwise it would read something like "having or showing an excessive pride in oneself or one's fictional achievements".

Other definitions don't even mention achievements: "Exhibiting or feeling great or offensive satisfaction with oneself or with one's situation; self-righteously complacent."

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Of course. I feel smug every time I've been to the gym, and it's literally true that I've been there.

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    I feel crestfallen. My next-door neighbour actually runs a gym, but he's never offered me even one free session there. Feasibly because he doesn't think I need it, but most likely he just thinks I'm a hopeless case,
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 17:56
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    @FumbleFingers you make me laugh...
    – user11550
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 18:45
  • @Mahnax: ty. If someone asks for the antonym of "smug" and I manage to get in first with "crestfallen" I shall look to you for the upvote! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 18:53
  • @FumbleFingers Oh, the upvote will come if that happens!
    – user11550
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 19:54
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    You two get a room.
    – ThePopMachine
    Commented Jan 2, 2012 at 22:52

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