different between snark vs sass

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: snärk, IPA^(key): /sn??(?)k/
• Rhymes: -??(r)k

Etymology 1

Noun sense “snide remark” as back-formation from snarky (1906), from obsolete snark (“to snore, snort”, verb) (1866), from Middle English snarken (“to snore”). Compare Low German snarken, North Frisian snarke, Swedish snarka, and English snort, and snore.

Noun

snark (uncountable)

1. Snide remarks or attitude.

   Synonyms: sarcasm, snideness

   • 2010, David Denby, Snark, Pan Macmillan (?ISBN), page 4:

     Snark will get you any way it can, fore and aft, and to hell with consistency. In a media society, snark is an easy way of seeming smart. […] Snark doesn't create a new image, a new idea. It's parasitic, referential, insinuating.

Related terms

• snarkiness
• snarky

Verb

snark (third-person singular simple present snarks, present participle snarking, simple past and past participle snarked)

1. To express oneself in a snarky fashion.
2. (obsolete) To snort.

Derived terms

• snarker

Etymology 2

From Snark, coined by Lewis Carroll as a nonce word in The Hunting of the Snark (1874), about the quest for an elusive creature. In sense of “a type of mathematical graph”, named as such in 1976 by Martin Gardner for their elusiveness.

Noun

snark (plural snarks)

1. (mathematics) A graph in which every node has three branches, and the edges cannot be coloured in fewer than four colours without two edges of the same colour meeting at a point.
2. (physics) A fluke or unrepeatable result or detection in an experiment.

Further reading

• snark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Snark (Lewis Carroll) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “snark”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• snark at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

Anagrams

• ARNKs, Karns, Kršan, K???a, karns, knars, krans, narks, ranks, skarn

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stnar?k/
• Rhymes: -ar?k

Noun

snark n (genitive singular snarks, no plural)

1. crackle (of a fire)

Declension

Related terms

• snarka (“to crackle”)

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From snórk. Cognate with Smalandian snarke m, Helsingian snárse, snarkse m, snarka f, Norwegian snerkje m.

Noun

snark m (nominative & accusative definite singular snarken)

1. Skin, wrinkled skin-film which forms on porridge and gruel.
2. Cream.

Alternative forms

• sn?rk

English

Etymology

Variant of sauce

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sæs/
• Rhymes: -æs

Noun

sass (uncountable)

1. (US) Backtalk, cheek, sarcasm.
2. (archaic) Vegetables used in making sauces.

Derived terms

• sassy

Translations

Verb

sass (third-person singular simple present sasses, present participle sassing, simple past and past participle sassed)

1. (intransitive, US, informal) To talk, to talk back.
   • 1894, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad

     “But, good land! what did he want to sass back for? You see, it couldn’t do him no good, and it was just nuts for them.”

2. (transitive, US, informal) To speak insolently to.

Translations

German

Verb

sass

1. Switzerland and Liechtenstein standard spelling of saß.