"snubbing your nose"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Here's a little rap song that will answer your question.

Well, you can stub your toes,
and you can eat at Joe's,
and you can whip your foes,
and you can drink at Moe's.
You can buy new clothes,
and you can twirl yo-yos.
but never in my life have I heard
"snub your nose."

J "Mad Prof-Doc" L

James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> wrote: ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society
Poster:       James Smith
Subject:      Re: "snubbing your nose"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What am I missing here.  I've used this expression,
and heard others use it, all my life (61 years).

--- James Harbeck  wrote:

> >Fox News reporter, just now:
> >
> >   "The judge said that Hilton essentially was
> snubbing her nose at
> >the judicial system."
> >
> >   Less painful than stubbing but more senseless
> than thumbing.
>
> I've heard and seen this one every so often. It's
> becoming
> increasingly common, I think. Google results for
> assorted variations:
>
> "snubbing her nose": 506
> "snubbing his nose": 1580
> "snubbing their nose": 846
> "snubbing their noses": 2990
> "snubbing my nose": 1030
> "snubbing your nose": 741
> "snubbing your noses": 66
> "snub her nose": 765
> "snub his nose": 2200
> "snub their nose": 940
> "snub their noses": 995
> "snub my nose": 5260
> "snub your nose": 3650
> "snub your noses": 166
>
> Interesting distribution there: "her" is definitely
> pulling up the
> rear, and "my" and "your" are stronger with "snub"
> while "their" is
> with "snubbing". I'm sure there are some interesting
> factors behind
> that... hmmm... At any rate, a glance at the results
> indicates that
> in general they are meaning "thumb (X's) nose".
>
> I don't find "snub (X's) nose(s)" in the Eggcorn
> Database, but I
> think it might count as an eggcorn, since, though
> it's a little
> phonetically farther from "thumb" than the usual
> eggcorn would be
> from its source -- suggesting more of a
> misrecollection than a
> mishearing -- it is a reanalysis on the basis of
> what seems sensible
> (nobody thumbs their nose anymore, it seems,
> although it was common
> enough when I was a kid, but "snub nose" is a known
> collocation, and
> there is clear influence from the normal use of the
> verb "snub" --
> which would in most cases work just fine in these
> contexts without
> the nose -- and probably a bit of influence from
> "snob" too), and the
> phonetic details are similar enough to allow for
> substitution in
> recollection (voiceless fricative, bilabial nasal,
> mid central
> vowel). Or if I'm running too far with the eggcorn
> label, I'm sure
> Arnold Zwicky will tell me, and we'll just toss it
> in the malapropism
> bin.
>
> James Harbeck.
>
>
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> The American Dialect Society -
> http://www.americandialect.org
>


James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
                               |or slowly and cautiously.



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