• snickersnee •
Printable Version Pronunciation: sni-kêr-snee • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. A large or long knife. 2. A Dutch method of fighting with large knives.
Notes: Until the middle of the 19th century people at odds with each other could snick and snee. The two words (from Dutch, see Word History) were used separately. Now, however, they are combined into a compound noun that may be used as a verb meaning to fight with a snickersnee: "Smedley discovered quickly that he could not snickersnee the rapidly approaching grizzly bear."
In Play: In Act II of The Mikado, Gilbert and Sullivan could not resist the humor in today's word: "The criminal cried, as he dropped him down, . . . As he squirmed and struggled, And gurgled and guggled, I drew my snickersnee, My snickersnee!" Today, however, this word is used figuratively. As late as 1976, according to Newsweek October 18, Howard W. Smith, a Virginia Democrat, defended his use of the House Rules Committee chairmanship to block civil-rights legislation by quipping, "[Y]ou grasp any snickersnee you can get hold of and fight the best way you can."
Word History: Today's fascinating word is a compound that originated as a phrase, to stick or snee "to cut and thrust in a knife fight". This phrase is a corruption of Dutch steken en snijden "stab and cut" from steken "to stab" + en "and" + snijden "to cut". Steken is related to German stechen "to stick, stab" and English stick. Snijden comes from the same source as German Schneider "tailor" and Schnitzel "cutlet", as in Wiener Schnitzel, which we borrowed freely from German.
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