According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...
smearing n. a climbing technique in which the soles of the shoes are used flat against the surface being climbed. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)