snuff

\ \ English has three words snuff, all probably going back ultimately to a prehistoric Germanic base *snuf-, imitative of the sound of drawing air noisily in through the nose. Snuff ‘powdered tobacco for inhaling’ [17] was borrowed from Dutch snuf. This was probably short for snuftabak, etymologically ‘sniff-tobacco’, which in turn was derived from Middle Dutch snuffen ‘sniff, snuffle’, source of English snuff ‘sniff’ [16]. That base *snuf- also produced English snuffle [16], probably borrowed from Low German or Dutch snuffelen, and snivel [14], which may go back to an unrecorded Old English *snyflan; and sniff [14], if not directly related, was certainly similarly inspired by the sound of sniffing. Snuff ‘put out a candle’ was derived in the 15th century from the noun snuff ‘burnt candlewick’ [14]. The origins of this are not known, but the fact that the now obsolete verb snot was once used for ‘put out a candle’ as well as ‘blow one’s nose’ suggests that this snuff too may ultimately have connections with the inner workings of the nose (possibly a perceived resemblance between an extinguished candlewick and a piece of nasal mucus), and with the base *snuf-. Snuff it ‘die’ is first recorded in the late 19th century.

\ \ Cf.⇒ SNIVEL