SNIP, a tailor.
SNIPE, a long bill; also a term for attorneys,—a race remarkable for
their propensity to long bills.
SNIPES, “a pair of SNIPES,” a pair of scissors. They are occasionally
made in the form of that bird.
SNITCHERS, persons who turn queen’s evidence, or who tell tales. In
_Scotland_, SNITCHERS signify handcuffs.
SNOB, a low, vulgar, or affected person. Supposed to be from the
nickname usually applied to a Crispin, or a maker of shoes; but
believed by a writer in _Notes and Queries_ to be a contraction of
the _Latin_, SINE OBOLO. A more probable derivation, however, has
just been forwarded by an ingenious correspondent. He supposes that
NOBS, _i.e._, _Nobiles_, was appended in lists to the names of
persons of gentle birth, whilst those who had not that distinction
were marked down as S. NOB., _i.e._, _sine nobilitate_, without
marks of gentility,—thus reversing its meaning. Another
“word-twister” remarks that, as at college sons of nobleman wrote
after their names in the admission lists, _fil nob._, son of a lord,
and hence all young noblemen were called NOBS, and what they did
NOBBY, so those who imitated them would be called _quasi-nobs_,
“like a nob,” which by a process of contraction would be shortened
to _si-nob_, and then SNOB, one who pretends to be what he is not,
and apes his betters. The short and expressive terms which many
think fitly represent the three great estates of the realm, NOB,
SNOB, and MOB, were all originally slang words. The last has safely
passed through the vulgar ordeal of the streets, and found
respectable quarters in the standard dictionaries.
SNOBBISH, stuck up, proud, make believe.
SNOB-STICK, a workman who refuses to join in strikes, or trade unions.
Query, properly KNOB-STICK.
SNOOKS, an imaginary personage often brought forward as the answer to
an idle question, or as the perpetrator of a senseless joke.
SNOOZE, or SNOODGE (vulgar pronunciation), to sleep or doze.
SNOT, a term of reproach applied to persons by the vulgar when vexed or
annoyed. In a Westminster school vocabulary for boys, published in the
last century, the term is curiously applied. Its proper meaning is the
glandular mucus discharged through the nose.
SNOTTER, or WIPE-HAULER, a pickpocket who commits great depredations
upon gentlemen’s pocket-handkerchiefs.—_North._
SNOTTINGER, a coarse word for a pocket-handkerchief. The German
_schnupftuch_ is, however, nearly as plain. A handkerchief was also
anciently called a MUCKINGER, or MUCKENDER.