On Sat, 23 Aug 1997 14:58:08 -0400 Dennis Kelly <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>At the "State of Mark Twain Studies" conference in Elmira there were a
>couple
>of papers which referred to Chapter XXXV of Adventures of Huckleberry
>Finn
>and the action of the boys in "smouching the knives".
>
>Two separate speakers pronounced the word "smOWch" rendering the
>portion in
>question to sound like "ow", the cry of pain.
>
>Meanwhile, through the audience, or at least the part where I sat,
>there was
>a murmur of "sMOOch", with the middle portion of the word articulated
>to
>sound like the utterance of a contented cow. One person even had a
>developed
>etymology, explaining that the word "smouch" derived from "mooch"= to
>borrow.
>
>Is there any authority for pronounciation of this word?
>
>Dennis Kelly
>

American dictionaries are strangely silent about the word "smouch," but
the OED gives a full definition as well as its pronunciation: "smautf"
the "au" as in nOW, and the "tf" as in CHop. Thus, "smouch" rhymes with
"ouch."

Mark Twain used "smouch" in at least six different ways:
        1. extensive borrowing from one's own writings;
        2. the simple stealing of goods, including the imaginary
                "smouchings from the rainbow" in FE;
        3. pretentious use of foreign words and phrases;
        4. usurping the ideas and opinions of other writers;
        5. reprehensible plagiarism;
        6. quotation from an acknowledged source.

Examples from Mark Twain's writings for all of the above types of
smouching can be found in the following article: Mary Boewe, "Smouching
towards Bedlam; or, Mark Twain's Creative Use of Some Acknowledged
Sources," _Mark Twain Journal_, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Spring 1991), pp. 8 12.

The article does not pretend to include all of MT's use of "smouch" in
his letters and published writings, but it does quote from a number of
sources.