• snool •
Printable Version Pronunciation: snul • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: An extreme toady, a willing kow-tower, someone who submits tamely to oppression, a 'yes man'.
Notes: Today's word holds no spelling or pronunciation traps. It is a lexical orphan without derivatives though it may be used as a verb: to snool is more natural than the Chinese word kow-tow. It is a useful substitute for all those horrible phrases, such as to brown-nose, to suck up to—all of which have unpleasant connotations.
In Play: A snool is not just a toady but someone who accepts abuse willingly: "Oh, I would say that Ben Dover is more than just a yes-man; I would say that he is more of a driveling sniveling snool who enjoys the boss abasing him day in and day out." His sister, Eileen, was just as bad; she snooled through life with bovine equanimity.
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Scotland and the northern English dialects. It is a dialectal variant of snivel as drool is a variant of drivel. Snivel is from Old English snofl "mucus", probably borrowed from Danish snøvle "to sniffle"; indeed, sniffle is a close relative. Both these words are related to the verb snuff "to draw up the nostrils" of which only the noun snuff remains in active use, aside from the slang usage of the verb in the sense of "to assassinate".
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
