smack

[missmooncat]

Why is heroin called smack?

[Quizmonster]

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, it is probably derived from the German noun 'Schmeck', meaning a 'taste'. It has meant heroin or a small packet of the drug since the 1940s. We see the same sort of usage in saying that something 'smacks'; of something else, as in "That smacks of dishonesty to me."

[danube]

As Quizmonger - Schmeck seems to be the derivative word - mainly U.S. from 1932 - applied to a narcotic drug from the Yiddish for 'sniff'. (Oxford dictionary of Slang)

[Quizmonster]

Well, the scholars at The Oxford English Dictionary - the great-grand-daddy of all Oxford English dictionaries - have been unable to find any reference to this prior to 1942. It appeared then in an American dictionary of slang. I wonder whether your 1932 is just a misprint for 1942, Danube. But what the hey!

[danube]

Hi, Q,

Correct - just concurring that 'schmeck', the derivative word for 'smack' was itself used as a slang word for heroin in the 1930's.

[Quizmonster]

I geddit, D! Sorry we appear to have been writing at cross purposes. Cheers