snot

[Jonathan Lighter]

_Snot_ has long been used of contemptible and/or insolent persons, regardless of youth or nasal hygiene. OED has it from 1809.

  It is frequently used with "little," e.g. (the earliest U.S. attestation):

  1878 John McElroy _Andersonville_  (rpt. N.Y.: Fawcett, 1962) 273 [ref. to Civil War]: He'll find somethin' different from the little snots of Reserves he ran over up above Milledgeville.

  Like similar terms, it was rare in print till the 1930s or so.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: snot
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe it's some kind of shortening of "snot-nosed little [whatever]!"
The snot-nose was quite common in the 'Forties. How it happened that
both "little snot" and "snot-nosed little [whatever]" were both unused
and essentially even unknown among Saint Louis's black population is
one of those mysteries that will never be solved.

-Wilson

On Dec 10, 2007 8:25 AM, David Bergdahl wrote:
> Hi, Wilson!
>
> Been enjoying your posts! I think the mom used the expression "little snot"
> rather than the more familiar "little shit" b/c she cleaned it up for
> 'public' use. You should have asked your friend at the time!
>
> Best regards,
> David
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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