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Etymology and origin of the English word snuff

Pronunciation

snuff1 burned part of a candlewick; to put out

Confidence
Unknown
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1382 Wycliffite Bible
Inherited from
Middle English snoffe

Etymology

The word for the burned end of a candlewick is inherited from Middle English snoffe, also snuffe,[2][3][4] of unknown origin.[5][6][3][7][8] The OED notes that German Schnuppe, which has the same sense, does not correspond in sound.[6] The MED compares Middle Dutch snuf and snof and Middle Low German snūve (“head cold”), with snūveschere (“candle-snuffer”);[2] the American Heritage Dictionary suggests a Low German origin,[9] and Chambers calls its connection with the verb of sniffing obscure.[10] Etymonline thinks it perhaps related to that verb,[5] and Weekley and Partridge took the two to be one word;[11][12] Weekley compared French moucher, used both of snuffing a candle and of wiping the nose.[11] The verb, to cut or pinch off the snuff, is Middle English snoffen, formed from the noun.[2][3][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The burned part of a candlewick: before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible's Exodus, which speaks of the vessels "where þe snoffis ben qwenchid".[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to free a candle from its snuff so that it burns brighter, follows before 1450.[3][6][2] The noun also took on senses of offence: to take (it) in snuff, to take offence (1560–1716), to take snuff (from 1565, now archaic), and a fit of indignation or huff (from 1592, now Scottish).[6][4] Johnson (1755) illustrated the candle sense with Shakespeare's King Lear: "My snuff and loathed part of nature should burn itself out".[13] The noun also meant the dregs of a drink left in a cup (1592–1738).[6][4] Snuff out, to extinguish, is recorded in Miege's French dictionary (1688; 1687 in Barnhart),[6][3] and its figurative use for ending a life appears in Byron's Don Juan (1818) according to Barnhart, in 1852 according to the OED.[3][6] In slang, snuff or snuff it meant to die from the 1860s (1864 in the OED, 1865 in Etymonline),[6][5][14] and in Yorkshire a dying cow could be said to snuff out.[15] The transitive sense "to kill" dates from 1932, in Edgar Wallace,[6][5] and snuff film, a film said to show a real killing, originally an urban legend according to Etymonline, from 1975.[6][5] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective to 1971.[4]

Timeline

  • before 1382 – the burned part of a candlewick.[6][3][2]
  • c. 1450 – verb, to cut or pinch the snuff off a candle.[6][2][3]
  • 1560 – to take in snuff, to take offence (obsolete by 1716).[6]
  • 1592 – a fit of indignation, a huff; also the dregs of a drink (obsolete).[6]
  • 1688 – snuff out, to extinguish.[6] Barnhart dates it to 1687.[3]
  • 1864 – slang, to die.[6] Etymonline dates it to 1865.[5]
  • 1932 – slang, to kill.[6][5]
  • 1975 – snuff film, a film showing an actual killing.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The charred end of a candle's wick.[4][6]
  2. (chiefly Scottish) A fit of indignation; a huff.[4][6]
  3. (archaic) take snuff: to take offence.[4][6]
  4. (obsolete, 1592–1738) The dregs of a drink left at the bottom of a cup.[6][4]

Verb

  1. To cut or pinch off the snuff of a candle so that it burns brighter.[4][6][3]
  2. snuff out: to extinguish a flame; to put an end to something: The rain snuffed out the campfire.[4][6][3]
  3. (slang) To kill or murder.[6][4][14]
  4. snuff it (slang): to die.[6][14]

Adjective

  1. Of a film or book, showing real or sensational violent death, especially an actual killing: a snuff movie.[4][6]

Word family

  • snuffer
  • snuff film
  • unsnuffed

snuff2 to sniff; powdered tobacco

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1527
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch snuffen

Etymology

The verb meaning to sniff is probably borrowed from Middle Dutch snuffen, also snoffen (“to snuffle”),[6][16][8][17][18][7] which Etymonline and Barnhart give as Dutch or Flemish snuffen (“to sniff, snuff”).[5][3] It is related to snuiven (“to sniff”)[5][3] and to Middle High German snupfe, German Schnupfen (“head cold”),[5][18] and Etymonline derives it from Proto-Germanic *snuf-, imitative of the sound of breathing in through the nose.[5] The OED calls the Dutch verb either imitative or related to snuven.[6] The noun for powdered tobacco is borrowed from Dutch snuf, also snuif, short for snuftabak (“snuff tobacco”) or snuiftabak,[6][5][4][3][7][9][16] from the verb and tabak (“tobacco”);[4][9] compare German Schnupftabak.[6][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw something up through the nostrils: 1527, in L. Andrewe's translation of Brunschwig's Vertuose Boke of distillation.[6][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1520s.[5] The MED and Barnhart find an earlier Middle English snoffen meaning to clear one's nose or sniffle.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used intransitively, of drawing in air through the nose, from 1530, and for showing contempt by sniffing from 1544, a sense now rare.[6] A snuff was an act of snuffing from 1570 (1568 in Merriam-Webster).[6][4] Dryden in 1697 used the verb to mean to detect or anticipate something by its smell, often figuratively.[6] In Scots a snuff was also a sniff of contempt or displeasure.[15] Taking powdered tobacco through the nose became fashionable in England around 1680, having been known earlier in Ireland and Scotland.[3][5] The noun is recorded from 1683, in the London Gazette,[6][3] though Merriam-Webster dates it to 1650.[4] The verb to snuff, to take snuff, first appears in Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd (1725), and Barnhart suggests that Scottish soldiers stationed in the Low Countries in the 17th century may have brought it home.[3][6] Weekley notes that it was formerly often called snush.[11] Up to snuff, sharp and not easily fooled, later up to the usual standard, is recorded from 1810, in Poole's Hamlet Travestie, where a note explains it as a hunting image of a dog that has the scent.[6][5] In the southern United States snuff is usually taken by mouth.[6] Thieves in 1812 were snuffing, throwing snuff into a shopkeeper's eyes to rob the shop,[14][6] and in American teenage slang of the 1950s snuff was heroin.[14]

Timeline

  • 1527 – verb, to draw up through the nostrils.[6][4]
  • 1530 – verb, to draw air into the nose, especially in order to smell.[6]
  • 1570 – noun, an act of snuffing, often in disdain.[6] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1568.[4]
  • 1683 – powdered tobacco for inhaling.[6][3] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1650.[4]
  • 1697 – verb, to detect by smell.[6]
  • 1724 – a pinch of snuff.[6]
  • 1725 – verb, to take snuff.[6][3]
  • 1810 – up to snuff, shrewd; later up to standard.[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Finely ground tobacco that is inhaled through the nose or placed against the gums.[4][6]
  2. A pinch of snuff, the amount taken at one time.[4][6]
  3. An act of snuffing; a sniff.[4][6][17]
  4. up to snuff: up to the usual standard; also, shrewd and not easily deceived.[6][5]

Verb

  1. To draw in through the nose; to sniff: The horse snuffed the cold morning air.[4][6][17]
  2. Especially of an animal, to examine by sniffing.[4][17][6]
  3. To take snuff.[6][3]

Word family

  • snuffbox
  • snuffy
  • snuffingly

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ 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 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ 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)
  16. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  18. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.

Related etymologies

  • yacht · also from Dutch
  • crawl · also from Dutch
  • skate · also from Dutch
  • hooker · also from Dutch
  • funk · also from Dutch
  • stoke · also from Dutch
  • gin · also from Dutch
  • rant · also from Dutch
Cite this entry

“Snuff.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/snuff. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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