"snubbing your nose"

[James Harbeck]

Are you saying "snub one's nose" as a variation on "thumb one's nose"
has been around for more than half a century, or are you referring to
"snub one's nose" as in rubbing it, dabbing it, et cetera?
Interesting, if the former; the OED doesn't have that usage yet. It
has the expected main sense, "To check, reprove, or rebuke in a sharp
or cutting manner; in later use, to treat or receive (a person,
suggestion, etc.) in a way calculated to repress or mortify";
snubbing one's nose in this sense would of course mean treating one's
nose with disdain, et cetera. It also has the sense "To check the
growth of; to shorten; to cut, nip, or break off, the end of (a
thing)," whence "snub-nosed," and in this sense one can say "snub
one's nose" as in the quote "They laughed, and snubbed their noses
with their handkerchiefs" form 1845. It's not a standard gesture of
disdain, however. But there's nothing there for "snub one's nose at
(someone)" -- i.e., "snub one's nose" meaning "snub" (1) or "thumb
one's nose at."

I asked my wife, by the way (who is a dab hand at malapropisms and
phrase mismatches -- today she referred to someone as "a big oof" and
has also said things like "dime and pop store," "we'll have to put
the gun to the wire," and "that really turns my goat"), and she was
familiar with "thumb one's nose at" and knew of the gesture, and,
while she's heard "snub one's nose at," she's heard "thumb" more
often and considers it the more correct version. (She's 37 and has
lived in Toronto all her life.)

James Harbeck.

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