"snubbing your nose"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/9/2007 10:55 PM, Doug Wilson wrote:
>Now I've found several examples of "snub [one's] nose at" = "show
>disdain/contempt for", back to 1913. I can quote a few if anybody's
>interested.

This is what I immediately thought it meant, although I don't go back
to 1913 and I don't know whether I've ever heard/read the expression
or simply inferred what it would mean.

Joel

>However, the usage is apparently figurative in all the examples I've seen.
>
>I think this is similar to figurative "thumb [one's] nose at" and also to
>figurative "turn up [one's] nose at".
>
>The literal version of "thumb one's nose at" is usually understood to be
>"cock a snook at" or "put the thumb to the nose and wiggle the fingers
>toward", I suppose. I don't know whether there are or have been other
>gestures with similar import also called "nose-thumbing".
>
>The literal version of "turn up one's nose at" would be -- I suppose --
>"tilt one's head back at" or so. Does anybody have a better or alternative
>notion? I don't know whether there is or was a variant wherein one actually
>pushes his nose up/back with his hand (maybe like the Japanese "pig-nose"
>gesture for "ugly").
>
>So what would be the literal version of "snub one's nose"? One of the
>above? Or something else entirely?
>
>There's also "[nothing to] sneeze at" ... related?
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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