An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/schmiegen

by Friedrich Kluge

schmiegen, verb, ‘to wind, incline; (reflexive) twine, nestle,’ from Middle High German smiegen (Old High German *smiogan is by chance not recorded), ‘to cling close to, contract, stoop’; compare Anglo-Saxon smûgan, ‘to creep,’ Old Icelandic smjúga, ‘to creep through something’; the primary idea of these cognates, which do not occur elsewhere in Teutonic, is ‘to press closely to anything and to be swayed by its movements.’ Teutonic root smū̆g, from pre-Teutonic smū̆k; compare Old Slovenian smykati sę, ‘to creep,’ Lithuanian smùkti, ‘to slide.’ See schmücken and schmageln.