snot

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English snotte, also snot,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English gesnot (“nasal mucus”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} inherited from Proto-Germanic *snuttuz (“nasal mucus”).^[1][4] The Middle English Dictionary derives the Middle English word from both the Old English one and Middle Dutch snotte or Middle Low German snotte,^[2] and Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as probably borrowed from the Low German and Dutch word, which corresponds to the Old English one.^[9][10][11] It is cognate with Old Frisian snotta, Dutch snot, Middle High German snuz, Old High German snuzza and Norwegian snott (“nasal mucus”).^[7][6][3] Etymonline traces it to the same base as snout,^[4][9] and the OED relates its stem by ablaut to that of the verb snite, to blow the nose;^[3][10] Old English had the verb snȳtan.^[8][4] Outside Germanic, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged compare Middle Irish snūad (“river”),^[7][6] and Barnhart sets up Proto-Indo-European *sneu-d-.^[7] Wiktionary calls the word ultimately sound-symbolic, though perhaps continuing Proto-Indo-European *snew-t- (“to flow, run”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The snuff or burnt wick of a candle: about 1395, in the later version of the Wycliffite Bible, where tongs are made to take out the snottis.^[2][7] The OED's first record of this sense is from about 1420.^[3] The sense "nasal mucus" is recorded from about 1425,^[2][7][3] although the Old English gesnot already meant that, in a medical text.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English Dictionary also records the word, with a query, for a head cold or nasal polyps, and once, in a surgical text, for the foreskin.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as the mucus of the nose, with a quotation from Swift.^[12] As a term of contempt for a person it is recorded from 1809, first in dialect and slang;^[3][4] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1834, usually implying arrogance, after a bracketed example of 1607 in Dekker and Webster's Northward Hoe.^[13] In thieves' cant of the mid 19th century a snot was a gentleman.^[13] The candle sense survived in Scottish and northern English dialect,^[3][10][14] and in Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Somerset snot or snot-berry was the fruit of the yew.^[14] The verb meant to snuff a candle from before 1425, to blow the nose from 1576 and to sniff or snivel from 1662.^[3] The adjective snotty is recorded from 1570, at first literally, and in the sense "impudent, conceited", originally dialectal, from 1870.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – the snuff of a candle.^[2][7]
• c. 1425 – nasal mucus.^[2][3][7]
• before 1425 – verb, to snuff a candle.^[3]
• 1576 – verb, to blow or clear the nose.^[3]
• 1662 – verb, to sniff or snivel.^[3]
• 1809 – a contemptible person.^[3][4]
• 1839 – in cant, a gentleman.^[13]
• 1886 – snot-rag, a pocket handkerchief.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Mucus from the nose, or a lump of it; usually considered vulgar.^[6][15][3]
2. (slang) A contemptible or snotty person: Some little snot keyed my car.^[6][15][3]
3. (dialect) The snuff or burnt wick of a candle.^[3][10][14]

Verb

1. To blow or clear the nose.^[6][3][10]

Word family

• snotty

Related words

• snout
• snite

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b c 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)
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins