"snap"

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:16 PM -0400 4/6/09, Mark Mandel wrote:
>This question is addressed especially to Wilson, because it's in his posts
>that I remember seeing it, but of course it's open to anyone. What's with
>the written / (spoken?) interjection "Snap!"?
>
>Mark Mandel
>
I've only encountered it spoken, not written (until now), and always
in the form "Oh, SNAP!"  And always on television shows or movies
depicting exchanges/comebacks in younger and hipper cultural contexts
than those I usually hang out in in real life (SNL and The Daily
Show, for two). I'd guess an AAVE origin, but it's just a guess, and
like Mark I'd be interested in clarification.

LH

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