Why “smickering” is a great word
Of a look or smile: expressing sly, mischievous, or suppressed amusement, often with an amorous or knowing quality. From the verb 'smicker' (to look amorously or smilingly; to smirk), of uncertain origin, perhaps imitative of a simpering expression. The adjective 'smickering' is first attested in 1930 by Walter de la Mare. Unlike a smirk, which is smug and self-satisfied, or a grin, which is broad and guileless, a smickering expression is a shared, intimate secret. It is the conspiratorial glance over a champagne flute, the suppressed curve of a mouth behind a lover’s shoulder, the flicker of complicity in a parent’s eye as a child spins a tale—a silent language that makes the mundane feel clandestine.