Smeg (vulgarism)

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Smeg is a mild vulgarism which is conjecturally a shortened version of the word "smegma." It gained greatly increased prominence through its use as a supposedly inoffensive expletive in the British sci-fi/sit-com Red Dwarf. The word was used to replace almost every vulgar term used in the show's conversations, with the exception of the very mild. Additionally, the word itself had many variants, including "smegging" and "smeghead"; it was also used in phrases like "smeg off", "for smeg's sake", "smegging hell", and the longest version "smeg off, you smegging smegger". The show's creators have continually claimed that they knew nothing of the word "smegma", and that "smeg" was entirely made up, sounding as it did like a generic, four-letter, single-syllable swear-word that might be used in the future (and so could be used in the programme in place of swear words that, at the time, would not usually be used in mainstream sitcoms).

Lexicographer Tony Thorne, in his 1990 Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (ISBN 0-7475-2856-X), reports instances of "smeg" (and derivatives) being used as a term of "mild contempt and even affection" among "schoolboys, students and punks" as early as the mid-1970s — a decade or so prior to the inception of the Red Dwarf phenomenon — and claims unequivocally that the etymology of the term traces back to "smegma".

In the "Let's Swear" item in Bachelor Boys, the Young Ones book, the character Rick, played by Rik Mayall, calls another character "smeg face".

Red Dwarf

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Characters:

Dave Lister · Arnold Rimmer · Holly · Cat · Kryten · Kristine Kochanski · Other characters

Media:

Episodes · Red Dwarf Remastered · Prelude to Nanarchy

Books:

Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers · Better Than Life · Last Human · Backwards

Concepts:

Smeg · Computer senility · Dollarpound · Felis sapiens · GELF · Silicon Heaven · Space Corps Directives

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