snip

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Dutch snippen (“to snip, shred”) or Low German snippen,^[2][3][4][5] a verb of imitative origin.^[2][4][6] The noun is recorded first, in 1558, and the verb from 1577.^[7][8] Barnhart derives the noun from the related Dutch or Low German nouns snip and snippe (“small piece”),^[9] and the Oxford Dictionary of English from Low German snip alone;^[10] the OED takes the noun as partly formed from the verb and partly from Low German, comparing dialectal German schnippen and schnipfen, and Dutch and Frisian snip (“a snappish woman”).^[7][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged compares Middle High German snipfen (“to snap the fingers”),^[8][11] and Weekley, Onions and the Shorter Oxford connect the word with snap.^[12][13][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small piece, especially of cloth, cut off or out; a shred: 1558, in the records of the Office of the Revels under Elizabeth I.^[7] Etymonline and Barnhart likewise date the noun to the 1550s.^[2][9] The verb first meant to snatch or snap something up: 1577, in Stanyhurst's part of Holinshed's Chronicles;^[7] Barnhart finds it implied in snipped in 1578.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the shred of cloth the noun widened to any small piece or bit of something (1598, in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost)^[7] and to a white patch on a horse's nose or lip (1562).^[7][8] By 1633 it was used contemptuously of a person, later of a young or slight one.^[7][11] From the 1590s it was a nickname for a tailor: Ben Jonson's Master Snip (1599) is the first quotation in Green's Dictionary of Slang.^[2][14][13] A small cut made with scissors is recorded from 1600, and a single cut of the scissors from 1676.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave the noun as "a single cut with scissars", quoting Shakespeare's snip and nip, and cut.^[15] The verb lost its first sense, to snatch (obsolete by 1720); from 1593 it meant to cut with scissors or the like.^[7][9] In British slang a snip became a certainty or something easily done (1890) and a bargain (1926).^[16][11] In Scots and northern dialect it also meant a scrap or a small person, and northern dialect used from 1822 the verb for chipping a piece out of something.^[17][7]

Timeline

• 1558 – noun, a small piece cut off, especially of cloth.^[7][9]
• 1562 – a white mark on a horse's nose or lip.^[7]
• 1577 – verb, to snatch or snap (obsolete by 1720).^[7]
• 1593 – to cut with scissors.^[7][9]
• 1598 – a small piece or bit of anything.^[7]
• 1599 – Snip, a tailor, in Ben Jonson.^[14]
• 1600 – a small cut or incision.^[7]
• 1633 – a slight or contemptible person.^[7]
• 1676 – a single cut of scissors.^[7]
• 1890 – a certainty, something easily done.^[16]
• 1926 – a bargain.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small piece that has been cut off: snips of ribbon on the carpet.^[11][8][7]
2. An act of snipping, or the sound of scissors closing.^[11][8]
3. A small cut made by snipping.^[11][8][7]
4. A white spot or stripe on an animal's face, especially on a horse's nose.^[8][7]
5. (chiefly Brit, informal) A bargain.^[11][16]
6. (informal) Something easily done; a cinch.^[11][16]
7. (US, informal) A small or insignificant person, especially a young one.^[11][7]

Verb

1. To cut with small, quick strokes of scissors or shears: She snipped the loose threads off the hem.^[11][8][7]
2. To cut something off or out in this way.^[8][7]
3. To make a cut or cuts with scissors.^[8][7]
4. (obsolete, 1577–1720) To snatch or snap up quickly.^[8][7]

Word family

• snipper
• snippy
• snippet

Related words

• snap

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
17. ^ 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)