[antedating] "snuck" 1881

[Jonathan Lighter]

I was caught yesterday in the middle of one of those tedious discussions about whether "snuck" is a "real word."  I affirmed that it was, at least in the good ol' U.S. of A.  When
   that didn't work I tried sarcasm:  "If it isn't a word, what is it?"  This was met by knowing nods on the one side and looks of disbelief and pity on the other. Clearly _argumentum ad authoritatem_ does not work in such cases.

  OED's earliest "snuck" is from N.O. in 1887. This seems late to me, but an incomplete database search turned up little, owing partly to a discouragingly high number of false positives.  At any rate:

  1881 _Ballou's Monthly Magazine_ LIV (July) 99 [APS]: Well, sir, your boy Aleck got a straw, snuck up behind a sorrel mule, tickled him on the hind leg, and --

  JL


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