Unnumbered source etymology
Original entry ↗Used to replace any other verb, as is typical of smurfs. · To split a large financial transaction into smaller ones so as to avoid scrutiny; to carry out structuring. · To carry out a smurf attack against someone. · To use a smurf account.
A blue pixie with a white stocking cap, from the media franchise The Smurfs. · A smurf account or its user. · A smurf attack. · One member of a team, each of whom acquires a small amount of money or ingredients for manufacturing drugs, keeping the transactions too small in order to not raise suspicion.
Borrowed from Dutch smurf (via the Belgian comic De Smurfen, a translation of French Les Schtroumpfs), from French schtroumpf, a word that was created by Peyo based on German Strumpf (literally “stocking, sock”) while he was having dinner, either simply because it sounds funny to the French ear or based on a regional German use for “idiot”. Armand van Raalte was an employee for the Belgian publisher of Peyo's stories who felt that schtroumpf would not have the same effect in Dutch, so he tried to find a simple word that could be used both as a noun and a verb. The result was smurf. In other languages, the term was similarly altered; compare the translations below.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Borrowed-form mentionsmurfnl
- Derivation mentionschtroumpffr
- Derivation mentionStrumpfde
This page abbreviates 1 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
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