snort

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English snorten.^[2][3][4] The Middle English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary derive it from fnorten, a variant of fnoren,^[2][5] and Merriam-Webster's word histories take it as partly an alteration of fnorten, related to Old English fnora (“sneezing”), and partly from the source of snoren, to snore.^[6] The OED and Hoad call it imitative, comparing snore and snork,^[7][8] and Etymonline thinks it is either related to snore or, like it, imitative of the sound.^[9] Merriam-Webster compares Middle Low German snorren (“to drone, hum”) and snorren,^[6] and Skeat compared Low German snurten (“to make an explosive noise”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nose, to turn up, as in sniffing: before 1366, in the Romaunt of the Rose, a sense now obsolete.^[7][4] The sense "to snore" follows in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1386),^[7] where some manuscripts read fnorteth and others snorteth.^[2]

Semantic evolution

For two centuries the verb mostly meant to snore or to sleep heavily, a sense obsolete after the 17th century;^[7][3] Chaucer's miller, full of ale, snortith in his sleep like a horse.^[2] The sound of a horse driving its breath out through the nostrils is recorded from about 1405 in the OED,^[7] while Barnhart dates this meaning to Palsgrave's French–English dictionary of 1530.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the word only as blowing through the nose like a spirited horse.^[11] From 1582 it was applied to things that make a similar sound, later especially railway engines.^[7] Of people, it came to mean to express contempt or indignation in this way, first in Scott's Heart of Mid-Lothian in 1818,^[7][9] and in northern English dialect and in the United States to laugh loudly.^[7][12] The noun, formed from the verb, first meant a snore (1619),^[7][9] then the act or sound of snorting (1808 in the OED, 1795 in Etymonline).^[7][9] In American slang a snort became a drink of spirits (1889),^[7][9] and in the 20th century the verb came to mean to inhale cocaine or another drug through the nose (1935),^[9][13] and the noun a dose taken that way (1951).^[7]

Timeline

• before 1366 – of the nose, to turn up as in sniffing (obsolete).^[7]
• c. 1386 – to snore; to sleep heavily (obsolete by 1680).^[7]
• c. 1405 – of a horse, to drive the breath out violently through the nostrils with a harsh sound.^[7] Barnhart dates this sense to 1530.^[4]
• 1582 – of things, to make a sound like a snort.^[7]
• 1619 – noun, a snore (obsolete).^[7][9]
• 1808 – noun, an act or sound of snorting.^[7] Etymonline dates it to 1795.^[9]
• 1818 – of a person, to express contempt or indignation by snorting.^[7][9]
• 1864 – noun, a snort of contempt or disdain.^[7]
• 1889 – noun, a drink of spirits.^[7][9] Green's Dictionary of Slang cites a snort of whisky from 1868.^[13]
• 1935 – to inhale a drug, usually cocaine or heroin, through the nose.^[9][13]
• 1951 – noun, a dose of cocaine or heroin taken by sniffing.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force air out violently through the nostrils with a rough, harsh sound, as a horse does.^[3][14][7]
2. To express scorn, anger or disbelief with such a sound: The coach snorted at the referee's decision.^[3][14]
3. To say something with a snort or in a contemptuous way.^[14][7]
4. (slang) To inhale a powdered drug, especially cocaine, through the nose.^[14][13][15]
5. (obsolete) To snore.^[7][3]

Noun

1. An act or the sound of snorting.^[3][14][7]
2. (informal) A drink of liquor, usually straight, taken in one swallow.^[3][15][7]
3. (informal) A dose of cocaine or another drug taken by sniffing.^[15][7]

Word family

• snorter
• snortingly

Related words

• snore
• snorkel
• snork

Usage notes

A separate snort, recorded from 1944, was the British naval name for a submarine's snorkel: it is an anglicized form of German Schnorchel, made to look like this word; it was also a verb from 1953, of a submarine travelling under water with a snorkel.^[7][16]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ 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. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press