different between snip vs snit

English

Etymology

From Dutch snippen (“to snip; shred”) or Low German snippen (“to snip; shred”), of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sn?p/
• Homophone: SNP
• Rhymes: -?p

Verb

snip (third-person singular simple present snips, present participle snipping, simple past and past participle snipped)

1. To cut with short sharp actions, as with scissors.

2. To reduce the price of a product, to create a snip.
3. To break off; to snatch away.

   • The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores […] but I snipt […] some of it for my own share.

4. (informal) To circumcise.
   • 2001, David Cohen, The Father's Book: Being a Good Dad in the 21st Century, John WIley & Sons Ltd (2001), ?ISBN, page 72:

     Circumcised fathers face a special problem. Do you want your son's willy to be that radically different from your own? So, parents should perhaps not be put off. Be good to your son's future lovers and have him snipped.

   • 2008, Ilene Schneider, Talk Dirty Yiddish: Beyond Drek: The Curses, Slang, and Street Lingo You Need to Know When You Speak Yiddish, Adams Media (2008), ?ISBN, page 150:

     His children, however, were not snipped, possibly because Princess Diana was opposed to the practice, which is out of fashion in England.

   • 2012, Tom Hickman, God's Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis, Square Peg (2012), ?ISBN, page 144:

     By the outbreak of the First World War such claims had diminished and the medical profession touted circumcision as being 'hygienic' — fathers were not only encouraged to have their newborn sons snipped, but to belatedly enjoy the benefits themselves.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:snip.
5. (Internet) To remove the irrelevant parts of quotations in the reply message.

Translations

Noun

snip (plural snips)

1. The act of snipping; cutting a small amount off of something.
2. A single cut with scissors, clippers, or similar tool.
3. Something acquired for a low price; a bargain.

   That wholesale lot on eBay was a snip at $10

4. A small amount of something; a pinch.
5. (definite, the snip, euphemistic) A vasectomy.
6. A small or weak person, especially a young one.
   • 2010, Ellen Renner, Castle of Shadows, Hachette UK, 2010 ?ISBN.

     'Might as well come out now, you little snip, from wherever you be hiding!'

7. (dated) An impertinent or mischievous person.
   • 1835, William Hamilton Maxwell, My Life (page 283)

     Nor was the lady's establishment more fortunate in gaining the regard of the household. The maid was a verjuiced spinster, too old to love herself, and too ill-natured to look on. The footman was a regular snip […]

8. (obsolete) A share or portion; a snack.
   • 1680, Roger L'Estrange, The Free-Born Subject, Or, the Englishmans Birthright Asserted Against All Tyrannical Vsvrpations Either in Church or State

     His Third Query is a Frank Proposal, without any more ado, of taking all the Church Lands into the Crown; and Courteously he offers the Poor Cavaliers a Snip in the Booty

9. (obsolete, slang) A tailor.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

   • Template:RQ:Kingsley Alton

Translations

Derived terms

• snipper
• snippy

References

Anagrams

• Insp, NIPs, NPIs, Nips, PINs, PSNI, nips, pins, spin

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch snippe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sn?p/
• Hyphenation: snip
• Rhymes: -?p

Noun

snip f (plural snippen, diminutive snipje n)

1. A snipe or woodcock, thin-beaked bird of the genera Gallinago, Scolopax, Lymnocryptes, Limnodromus and Coenocorypha.
2. (informal, Netherlands) A 100 guilders banknote.

Derived terms

• houtsnip
• poelsnip
• snipverkouden
• watersnip

Descendants

• Afrikaans: snip
• ? Sranan Tongo: snepi

English

Etymology

Also perhaps from the German “schnitt” which is a portion of beer that is smaller than a glass.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sn?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

snit (plural snits)

1. A temper; a lack of patience; a bad mood.

   He's in a snit because he got passed over for promotion.

   • 2013, Florida Ann Town, On the Rim (page 84)

     She was confused. Now that he had worked himself into a snit he'd be angry if she unmade the bed and did what he wanted.

2. A U.S. unit of volume for liquor equal to 2 jiggers, 3 U.S. fluid ounces, or 88.7 milliliters.
3. (US, dialect) A beer chaser commonly served in three-ounce servings in highball or juice glasses with a Bloody Mary cocktail in the upper midwest states of United States including Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Illinois.

   The bartender served us each a snit with our Bloody Marys this morning.

See also

• snitty
• snit fit

Anagrams

• Inst., NIST, NTIS, TINs, Tsin, inst, inst., ints, isn't, nits, tins

Cimbrian

Etymology

From Old High German snita, from Proto-Germanic *snidaz (“cut, slice, piece”).

Noun

snit f

1. (Luserna) cut, slice, piece

References

• “snit” in Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien