The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Smattering \Smat"ter*ing\, n.
   A slight, superficial knowledge of something; sciolism.
   [1913 Webster]

         I had a great desire, not able to attain to a
         superficial skill in any, to have some smattering in
         all.                                     --Burton.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

smattering
    n 1: a small number or amount; "only a handful of responses were
         received" [syn: handful, smattering]
    2: a slight or superficial understanding of a subject

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

72 Moby Thesaurus words for "smattering":
   a little learning, amateurism, cast, coquetry, dabbling, dalliance,
   dallying, dash, dilettantism, dilettantship, few, fiddling,
   flirtation, fooling, fooling around, gleam, glimmering, glimpse,
   half-learning, handful, hint, idea, idling, imperfect knowledge,
   intimation, jerking off, kidding around, lick, loitering, look,
   messing around, monkeying, monkeying around, piddling, playing,
   playing around, pottering, puttering, scattering, scintilla,
   sciolism, semi-learning, shade, shadow, shallowness, sip,
   slight knowledge, smack, smatter, smattering of ignorance,
   smattering of knowledge, smell, soupcon, spark, spatter,
   spattering, sprinkling, suggestion, sup, superficiality,
   surface-scratching, suspicion, taste, thought, tincture, tinge,
   tinkering, touch, toying, trace, trifling, vague notion