"snubbing your nose"

[James Smith]

Just to clarify, although I'm long familiar with the
phrase "snub your nose at", I've never associated it
with any specific action, but rather with an attitude.



--- "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET> 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.
>
> 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
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.6.6/795 -
> Release Date: 5/9/2007 3:07 PM
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org