Yet another Etymology That Won't Die (s. nob.)

[Laurence Horn]

 From the current (Feb. 18 & 25) New Yorker, Judith Thurman's article
on etiquette, "If You Ask Me" (pp. 189-90):
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The word "snob", by the way, has not always meant someone who looks
down upon his "inferiors".  He was once someone who was looked down
upon by his "betters".  Some etymologists believe that the word is an
abbreviation of the Latin phrase _sine nobilitate_, without nobility,
and that before the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century it
was used on ships' manifests to suggests which passengers did not
deserve to sit at the captain's table; on the footman's list at
fashionable parties to indicate that a guest had no title to
announce, or on the student rosters of Oxford and Cambridge, flagging
the commoners.

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Yes, and some etymologists believe that "fuck" is an abbreviation of
the English phrase "Fornication Under Consent of the King" and that
it was posted many many years ago above the beds of those who were
legally married.   (She's right about the claim in the first two
sentences, but I'm still not inclined to give her partial credit.  I
kind of like the "snips and snobs" = 'tailors and cobblers' story
myself, but I'll settle for "o.o.o.")

larry