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snell

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Etymology and origin of the English word snell

Pronunciation

snell1 quick, keen, severe

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
Beowulf
Inherited from
Old English snell via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *snellaz

Etymology

The word for quick or keen is inherited from Middle English snel, also snelle,[2] inherited from Old English snell, also snel,[3][4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *snellaz (“active, swift, brisk”).[1][8][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon snel, Dutch snel, Old High German snel (“strong, bold, quick”), German schnell (“quick”) and Old Norse snjallr (“well-spoken, able, bold”),[3][4][6][7][8] whose descendants in the Scandinavian languages took a wide range of senses.[3] Italian snello (“nimble”) is a loan from Germanic.[6][7] Its further origin is unknown.[8][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, quick in movement or action, active, bold: Old English, in Beowulf;[3][5] of animals and things, in the Old English Phoenix.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English snel meant swift, active and prompt, and of news recent.[2] The senses severe, unsparing or painful, and of weather keen and bitter, appear in the Cursor Mundi (before 1400),[3][11] and by about 1425 it also meant keen-witted or clever.[3] Etymonline notes that the word became archaic in standard English after the Middle English period, surviving as a surname and in Scottish and northern English, where Burns and Scott used it.[6][11] Wright's dialect dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England, from Northumberland to Lincolnshire, for quick, sharp and eager.[12] Later senses include shrill, clear-sounding (about 1730) and sharp-tasting (1835).[3] The adverb, quickly or vigorously, is recorded from about 1330.[3][2]

Timeline

  • Old English – of people, quick, active; of animals, swift.[3][5]
  • c. 1330 – adverb, quickly, promptly; vigorously.[3]
  • before 1400 – severe, sharp; of weather, keen, bitter.[3]
  • c. 1425 – keen-witted, clever.[3]
  • c. 1730 – shrill, clear-sounding.[3]
  • 1835 – sharp-tasting, pungent.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (Scotland, dialect) Quick in movement; nimble, eager.[4][11][12]
  2. (Scotland, dialect) Sharp-witted, acute.[4][3][11]
  3. (Scotland, dialect) Of wind or weather, keen, bitter, biting: a snell east wind off the firth.[13][4][3]
  4. (Scotland, dialect) Severe, harsh.[3][11]

Adverb

  1. (dialect) Quickly, swiftly; vigorously.[4][3]

Word family

  • snelly

snell2 fishing line

Confidence
Unknown
First attested
1846 Spirit of the Times

Etymology

The word for the short fishing line is of unknown origin.[3][4][11][14][7] Dictionary.com dates it to the 1840s and labels it an Americanism.[15] The verb is formed from the noun.[3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A short line of gut or horsehair attaching a fishhook to a longer line: 1846, in the American sporting paper Spirit of the Times.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford labels the word American.[11] Later snells were also made of nylon.[4] The verb, to tie a hook to a line, appears in the Century Dictionary of 1891.[3][11]

Timeline

  • 1846 – a short line attaching a fishhook to the main line.[3][4]
  • 1891 – verb, to fasten a hook to a line.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A short line of gut, nylon or the like by which a fishhook is attached to a longer line.[4][3]

Verb

  1. To tie a hook to a snell, or to fasten something by a snell.[4][3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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 k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b 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)
  13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Snell.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/snell. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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