An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/schmiegen
schmiegen, vb., ‘to wind, incline; (refl.) twine, nestle,’ from MidHG. smiegen (OHG. *smiogan is by chance not recorded), ‘to cling close to, contract, stoop’; comp. AS. smûgan, ‘to creep,’ OIc. smjúga, ‘to creep through something’; the prim. idea of these cognates, which do not occur elsewhere in Teut., is ‘to press closely to anything and to be swayed by its movements.’ Teut. root smū̆g, from pre-Teut. smū̆k; comp. OSlov. smykati sę, ‘to creep,’ Lith. smùkti, ‘to slide.’ See schmücken and schmageln.