snowball

Etymology

It is formed from English snow + ball,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a Middle English compound.^[7][6] Similar compounds are West Frisian sniebal, Middle Dutch sneubal, Dutch sneeuwbal, German Schneeball, Danish snebold and Swedish snöboll.^[2][3] The verb comes from the noun;^[2][3] in the sense of throwing snowballs at someone it may be a back-formation from snowballing, and the OED compares sniebalje and schneeballen.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A ball of snow, especially one of a size to throw by hand: about 1400, in the Brut.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word 1350–1400 and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The image of a snowball that grows as it rolls was common from the 17th century: the OED has allusive uses from 1612, in Webster's The White Devil,^[2][8] and Etymonline dates the image to 1613.^[3] Johnson (1755) quoted Hayward on a company "daily increasing, like a snowball in rolling", and Dryden on folly that grows like a snowball.^[5] From this came a scheme that depends on such growth, recorded from 1892,^[2][3] the verb sense "to increase rapidly", attested only from 1929,^[2][3] and in bingo a prize that grows from game to game until it is won (1949).^[2] The phrase a snowball's chance in hell, no chance at all, is recorded by 1910.^[3][2] The verb first meant to form balls or masses of snow (1684); to throw snowballs at someone is recorded from 1850 and to throw snowballs from 1852,^[2][3] though Merriam-Webster dates the intransitive use to 1843.^[7] Things that look like a ball of snow took the name too: a dish or confection (1769), shaved ice flavoured with syrup in American, Caribbean and Bermudian English (1894), a cocktail (1930), now usually of advocaat and lemonade, and the guelder rose and other viburnums with round white flower heads (1828).^[2][4][9] In Scotland to cast snowballs meant to be reserved or distant (1725–1821).^[2] The word was also an offensive name for a black person from 1785, in Grose's dictionary, and a nickname for a chimney sweep from 1842,^[2][10] and in American drug slang it meant cocaine from 1930.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a ball of snow, especially for throwing.^[2][3]
• 1612 – allusive use, of something that grows as it rolls.^[2]
• 1684 – verb, to form balls of snow.^[2]
• 1769 – a dish made to look like a ball of snow.^[2]
• 1828 – the guelder rose or another viburnum.^[2]
• 1850 – verb, to throw snowballs at someone.^[2][3]
• 1892 – a scheme that grows by a snowball effect.^[2][3]
• 1894 – in American English, flavoured shaved ice.^[2]
• 1910 – a snowball's chance in hell.^[3]
• 1929 – verb, to increase rapidly.^[2][3]
• 1930 – a cocktail; in drug slang, cocaine.^[2][10]
• 1949 – a bingo prize that accumulates.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ball of snow pressed together in the hands, especially for throwing in play.^[9][7][2]
2. Something that grows faster and faster as it goes on, like a snowball rolled through snow.^[7][2][4]
3. A cocktail usually made of advocaat and lemonade.^[9][4]
4. In American and Caribbean English, shaved ice flavoured with syrup; a snow cone.^[7][2][4]
5. A viburnum with round clusters of white flowers, especially a cultivated guelder rose.^[7][2][4]
6. In bingo, a cash prize that builds up over successive games until someone wins it.^[2][4]
7. (slang) cocaine, or a mixture of cocaine and heroin.^[10][9]
8. (offensive) An insulting name for a black person.^[2][4][10]
9. not a snowball's chance (in hell): no chance at all.^[4][2]

Verb

1. To grow or increase faster and faster: Complaints snowballed after the first article appeared.^[9][7][2]
2. To throw snowballs at someone; to pelt with snowballs.^[9][7][2]
3. To throw snowballs.^[7][2]
4. To make something increase faster and faster.^[7]

Related words

• snow
• ball

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ 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
5. ^ 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.
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com