snigger
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
British variant pronunciation and spelling of snicker.[1] This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
snigger (plural sniggers)
- (chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) A partly suppressed or broken laugh.
- 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 255:
- Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself together and tried to look particularly solemn.
- (chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) A sly or snide laugh.
Translations edit
A partly suppressed or broken laugh
a sly or snide laugh
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Verb edit
snigger (third-person singular simple present sniggers, present participle sniggering, simple past and past participle sniggered)
- (intransitive, chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) To emit a snigger.
- 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, page 22:
- […] presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his bedraggled appearance.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in The Cuckoo in the Nest[1]:
- Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia's mother was not a humourist.
Synonyms edit
- See also Thesaurus:laugh
Translations edit
to emit a snigger
Usage notes edit
- This term can be seen as offensive by those unaware of its etymology and meaning, especially in North America, because it can be misinterpreted as a variant or masking of the racial slur nigger. The two words are unrelated, both in etymology and meaning. In the British Isles, snigger is much more common than snicker and unlikely to mistaken for a slur. Elsewhere, snicker is the more common term, which increases the likelihood of snigger being mistaken for a slur.
References edit
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “snigger”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.