snare

snare¹ noose, trap

Etymology

The word for the trap is inherited from Middle English snare,^[2][3] partly inherited from Old English snearu^[4][5][6][2] and partly borrowed from Old Norse snara (“noose, snare”),^{[3][6][2][7][5]} from Proto-Germanic *snarhǭ.^[8][7][5] Several dictionaries derive the Old English word itself from Old Norse.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} The Norse word is related to Old Saxon snari (“string, cord”), Middle Dutch snare, Dutch snaar (“string”) and Old High German snaraha (“noose, snare”),^[7][11][3] and, with a different vowel, to German Schnur (“cord”).^[12][5] Barnhart and Köbler trace the group to Proto-Indo-European *snerk- (“to twist, bind”) (Pokorny 976),^[7][8] also seen in Ancient Greek νάρκη (nárkē, “numbness”), the source of narcotic;^[7][11][12] Klein connects it with a base Proto-Indo-European *(s)ner- (“to turn, twist, bind together”), and compares narrow.^[12] The verb, snaren, is formed from the noun.^{[2][7][3][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A device for catching small animals or birds, usually a cord with a running noose: before 1100, in an Old English gloss.^[3][7] Bosworth–Toller's example glosses Latin words for a noose set for hares or birds.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation, from before 1325, is a gloss in Bibbesworth's French treatise.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense, anything by which a person is entangled or trapped, is recorded from before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.^[3][5] The Wycliffite Bible used the noun for a noose or halter, a rare sense now obsolete, and gives the first record of the verb, about 1395.^[3][7][2] The figurative verb "to entangle, entrap" is dated 1401,^[3][14] and in Middle English the verb was also used in surgery, of tying off a vein with a running loop.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as anything set to catch an animal and, second, anything by which one is entrapped.^[15] Surgery took up the noun again in 1884 for a wire loop for removing growths, with a verb of the same date.^[3][16] In American tramps' slang of 1899, to snare a boy was to entice him into tramp life;^[17] from 1942 American slang used the verb for catching something or winning by a small margin.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1100 – a noose for catching small animals or birds.^[3][7]
• before 1300 – figurative, anything that entangles or entraps.^[3][5]
• c. 1395 – verb, to catch in a snare, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[7][3]
• 1401 – verb, figurative, to entangle, entrap.^[3][14]
• 1884 – in surgery, a wire loop for removing growths; also the verb.^[3]
• 1942 – US, to catch, to win by a small margin.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trap for birds or small animals, usually a noose of wire or cord that tightens around the prey.^[16][11][3]
2. Something that entangles or traps a person, especially a tempting but deceptive lure: the snares of easy credit.^[16][11]
3. A surgical instrument with a wire loop that is tightened to cut off a growth.^[16][3]

Verb

1. To catch an animal in a snare: They snared rabbits on the hill.^[16][11][3]
2. To catch or trap someone, as if in a snare, especially by trickery.^[16][11]
3. To win or obtain by skill or cunning: She snared a part in the new play.^[11]
4. (surgery) To remove a growth with a snare.^[3][9]

Word family

• snarer
• snareless
• snaringly
• ensnare

snare² drum string

Etymology

The word for the drum string is probably borrowed from Dutch snaar (“string”),^{[3][7][5][11][6]} from Middle Dutch snāre, also snaer;^[11][6][3] the OED and the Shorter Oxford also allow Middle Low German snare, and Dictionary.com gives either the Middle Low German or the Middle Dutch word.^[3][9][18] The Middle Dutch and Middle Low German word meant a harp string.^[10][9] The Dutch word comes from the same Germanic source as snare¹.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the strings of gut or rawhide stretched across the lower head of a side drum: 1688, in R. Holme's Academy of Armory.^[3][7][5]

Semantic evolution

The strings make the drum rattle when it is struck;^[5] they were first of gut or rawhide, and later of wire.^[3] The compound snare drum is dated about 1859 by Merriam-Webster,^[11] 1873 by Barnhart and Etymonline,^[7][5] and 1870–75 by Dictionary.com.^[18] Since 1938 snare alone has also meant the drum itself.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1688 – a string stretched across the lower head of a drum.^[3][7][5]
• c. 1859 – snare drum, a drum fitted with snares.^[11] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1873.^[7][5]
• 1938 – snare, short for snare drum.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. One of the gut strings or wire spirals stretched across the lower head of a snare drum, making it rattle.^[11][3]
2. A snare drum.^[11][3]

Word family

• snare drum