To soil or stain with smut, which is fine black powder or soot.
Combines 'be-' prefix with 'smut,' a Middle English word for soot, coal dust, or stains from fire. 'Smut' has Germanic origins and originally referred to the literal dust from burning materials.
In Victorian times, 'besmut' was a common complaint about factory workers and chimney sweeps—it's one of those words that directly documents how industrial pollution changed the English language itself.
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