snatch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English snacchen, early snecchen,^[2][3][4][5] a word of uncertain origin.^[6][7][8] It may be inherited from Old English *snæccan, an unrecorded verb that the MED and Etymonline propose.^[2][6] Barnhart and Etymonline suggest instead a borrowing from Middle Dutch snacken (“to snatch, chatter”),^[3][6] now snakken (“to gasp”),^[3][8][5] and compare Middle Low German snacken (“to chatter, prate”), Middle High German snacken and Old Norse snaka (“to sniff about”).^[3][4] The OED and Hoad relate it obscurely to snack,^[7][9][8] and the Shorter Oxford also to sneck, a latch, and compares snap.^[8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a dog or the devil, to make a sudden snap or bite at something: about 1230, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[7][2][6] Barnhart dates the form snecchen to probably before 1200 and snacchen to about 1225.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the snap of a dog's jaws the verb passed to a sudden grab with the hand: "to seize, lay hold of suddenly" is recorded from the early 14th century, in Mannyng's Chronicle (about 1330),^[7][6][3] and "to make a sudden catch at something" from 1530.^[7] With an abstract object, to obtain something hastily or by seizing a chance, it dates from 1563,^[7] and to take something hurriedly, as food or sleep, from 1803.^[7] Criminal slang used it for stealing from 1766,^[7][11] and American slang for kidnapping in the 20th century.^[7][11]

The noun first meant a trap or snare (before 1300 in Barnhart, until the mid 17th century),^[3][7][8] and also, rarely, a hasp or catch (1341).^[7] The sense "a sudden grab" dates from the 1570s,^[6][3] which led to a short spell of time or sleep (1563), a hasty meal or snack (1570, in Tusser) and a small piece or fragment;^[7][6][8] Johnson (1755) quoted Shakespeare's "snatches of old tunes".^[12] Later developments are a quick robbery (1866), a kidnapping, and in weightlifting a lift from the floor to overhead in one movement (1928).^[7][6]

A vulgar slang sense, a hasty act of sex, is recorded from 1538 by Green's Dictionary of Slang, and by Etymonline from the 1580s;^[11][6] the Shorter Oxford also records it, derogatorily, of a woman or women seen as sexual objects.^[8] The sense "female genitals" is quoted in Green's from 1785,^[11] while Etymonline dates it by 1903, perhaps 1864,^[6] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 20th century, as dialect and slang.^[8] Wright's dialect dictionary records it in North Yorkshire,^[13] and Green's traces the slang sense to Yorkshire dialect.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – verb, of a dog or the devil, to snap or bite at something.^[7][2]
• before 1300 – noun, a trap or snare (obsolete by 1655).^[3][7]
• c. 1330 – to seize suddenly.^[7][6]
• 1341 – noun, a hasp or catch (obsolete).^[7]
• 1530 – to make a sudden catch at something.^[7]
• 1538 – noun, a hasty act of sex (slang).^[11]
• 1563 – noun, a short space of time; verb, to obtain hastily.^[7][6]
• 1570 – noun, a hasty meal, a snack.^[7]
• 1577 – noun, a hasty catch, a sudden grab.^[3][7]
• 1590 – to seize something from someone's hands.^[7]
• 1766 – to steal.^[7]
• 1785 – noun, the female genitals (slang).^[11]
• 1803 – to take food or sleep hurriedly.^[7]
• 1866 – noun, a quick robbery.^[7]
• 1928 – noun, the weightlifting lift.^[7][6]
• 1941 – snatch one's time, to leave a job (Australian slang).^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To seize or grab something suddenly or roughly: The thief snatched the phone from her hand.^[14][4][7]
2. To try to seize something suddenly; usually with at: He snatched at the branch as he fell.^[14][7]
3. To take or get something hurriedly while there is a chance: snatch a quick lunch.^[14][7]
4. To remove or take away suddenly.^[14][7]
5. To win or rescue something narrowly: They snatched a draw in the last minute.^[14][8]
6. (slang) To steal;^[7][11] (chiefly US) to kidnap.^[7][11]
7. (weightlifting) To lift a weight in a snatch.^[14]
8. (Australia, slang) snatch one's time: to leave a job and take the wages due.^[14][7][8]
9. (obsolete) To make a sudden snap or bite.^[4][7]

Noun

1. A sudden grab or catch at something.^[4][7][8]
2. A short period or spell: a snatch of sleep;^[7][8] in snatches, in short bursts, intermittently.^[7][8][4]
3. A small part or fragment: snatches of conversation.^[8][12]
4. (weightlifting) A lift in which the weight is raised from the floor to above the head in one movement.^[4][7][8]
5. (slang) A kidnapping; a quick robbery.^[4][7][8]
6. (vulgar slang) The female genitals.^[8][11]
7. (vulgar slang) A hasty act of sex; derogatorily, a woman or women regarded as sexual objects.^[8][11]
8. (obsolete) A trap or snare.^[4][7][8]

Word family

• snatcher
• snatchable
• snatchingly
• outsnatch
• snatchy
• snatch block

Related words

• snack
• sneck
• snap

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins