_Origin of the Word "Snob"_.--I think that _Snob_ is not an archaism,
and that it cannot be found in any book printed fifty years ago. I am
aware that in the north of England shoe-makers are still sometimes
called _Snobs_; but the word is not in Brockett's _Glossary of North
Country Words_, which is against its being a genuine bit of northern
dialect.
I fancy that _Snobs_ and _Nobs_, as used in vulgar parlance, are of
classic derivation; and, most probably, originated at one of the
Universities, where they still flourish. If a _Nob_ be one who is
_nobilis_, a _Snob_ must be one who is _s[ine] nob[ilitate]_. Not that I
mean to say that the _s_ is literally a contraction of _sine_; but that,
as in the word slang, the _s_, which is there prefixed to _language_, at
once destroys the better word, and degrades its meaning; and as, in
Italian, an _s_ prefixed to a primitive word has a privative
effect--e.g. _calzare_, "to put on shoes and stockings;" _scalzare_, "to
put them off:" _fornito_, "furnished;" _sfornito_, "unfurnished," &c.;
as also the _dis_, in Latin (from which, possibly, the aforesaid _s_ is
derived), has the like reversing power, as shown in _continue_ and
_discontinue_--so _nob_, which is an abbreviation of _nobilis_, at once
receives the most ignoble signification on having an _s_ put before it.
The word _Scamp_, meaning literally a fugitive from the field, one _qui
ex campo exit_, affords another example of the power of the initial _s_
to reverse the signification of a word.
All this, Mr. Editor, is only conjecture, in reply to "ALPHA's" query
(No. 12 p. 185.); but perhaps you will receive it, if no better
etymology of the word be offered.