SNIRTLE

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Dr. Goodword
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SNIRTLE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Sep 18, 2006 12:13 am

• snirtle •

Pronunciation: snêr-dl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun and Verb

Meaning: A soft, suppressed laugh, a soft snortle (itself a reduced snort) or shortened snigger.

Notes: I am amazed at the subtle gradations of meaning offered by language to those who appreciated semantic subtlety. A snort is greater than a snortle which is greater than a snirtle. A snirtle is not a snicker or snigger, both of which are suppressed laughter and last a bit longer than a snirtle. A snirtle is a single, much shorter sound. Feel free to use this word as a verb or a noun.

In Play: Snirtles are very, very subtle snorts, usually a suppressed laugh: "Geraldine could not help but snirtle when she first heard her roommate's date lisp." You might think of a snirtle as a short, repressed snigger: "The girls just snirtled, then went back to the kitchen for a good laugh when the guys noticed that their pizza had chocolate chips in it."

Word History: Why so many words with similar meanings begin the same way is a mystery: snigger, snicker, snirtle, snortle, and snort all begin on SN. It could be the result of the nose being involved, since that organ is associated with this sound combination, as we hear in such words as snore, snozzola, and sniffle. It could be onomatopoeia, sound imitation, since the word underlying today's word is snort, which itself sounds a bit like one. The only one with a known associate is snore, which shares its origin with Greek pneuma "breath, wind, spirit", which turns up in English pneumatic and pneumonia.
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Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:37 am

So now we can rate the comedic effect or things by the snirtle-canniptions scale. If I have this right the progression is this:
Snirtle
Snortle
Snort
Snigger
Snicker
LOL
LOLWROTF (laugh out loud while rolling on the floor)
Canniption Fit.

Please let me know if any of these are out of order; or if we need some additional (and finer) gradations.

Perry much-too-susceptible-to-humor-to-stop-at-a-snirtle Dror
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Mon Sep 18, 2006 9:43 am

So now we can rate the comedic effect or things by the snirtle-canniptions scale. If I have this right the progression is this:
Snirtle
Snortle
Snort
Snigger
Snicker
LOL
LOLWROTF (laugh out loud while rolling on the floor)
Canniption Fit.

Please let me know if any of these are out of order; or if we need some additional (and finer) gradations.

Perry much-too-susceptible-to-humor-to-stop-at-a-snirtle Dror
Schnerk

mark Cooley-snort bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Mon Sep 18, 2006 10:09 am

. . .
LOL
LOLWROTF (laugh out loud while rolling on the floor)
Canniption Fit.

Please let me know if any of these are out of order; or if we need some additional (and finer) gradations.

Perry much-too-susceptible-to-humor-to-stop-at-a-snirtle Dror
I usually use the older ROFL (Rolling On the Floor Laughing) or the slightly risqué ROFLMAO (A combination of ROFL and LMAO==>ROFL My A** Off). An MF can be inserted before the A for a more inappropriate effect. :twisted: :shock:
Regards//Larry

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Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:50 am

ROLF does have the advantage of its brevity.

Where would schnerk go in the scale of things?
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Palewriter
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Postby Palewriter » Mon Sep 18, 2006 6:25 pm

I'm wondering about the darl "L" diminutive. Could it somehow be related to the "erl" or "l" diminutive so common in Austrian and Bavarian German?

-- PW

NROFLMAO :D
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!!! What a ride!"

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:34 pm

ROLF does have the advantage of its brevity.

Where would schnerk go in the scale of things?
a schnerk is more of a sarcastic chuckle, not a snort or snirtle.

mark heh-heh Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb









Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Sep 18, 2006 8:22 pm

I'm wondering about the darl "L" diminutive. Could it somehow be related to the "erl" or "l" diminutive so common in Austrian and Bavarian German?

-- PW

NROFLMAO :D
I wasn't wondering about this until now; but I sure am now! Palewriter, this is beyond the pale for me. Please elucidate.

Perry eeek!!! Dror
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous


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