A Snob Was Originally a Shoemaker
A snob looks down on others. The word once meant a cobbler, then a person of low rank.
A snob is someone who despises those they consider socially inferior. The meaning has completely reversed: in the 1780s a snob was a shoemaker, then Cambridge slang for any townsman as against a gownsman, then a person of low rank imitating their betters. Only in the nineteenth century did it come to mean the person doing the looking down rather than the one looked down on. Thackeray's *Book of Snobs* of 1848 fixed the modern sense.
- A social snob. *An insufferable snob.*
- A shoemaker (archaic). *A snob.*
- Snobbery. *Snobbery.*
- Snobbish. *Snobbish attitudes.*
- Origin unknown. *The 1780s.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | snob | A snob. |
| Plural | snobs | Snobs. |
| Noun | snobbery | Snobbery. |
| Adjective | snobbish | Snobbish. |
| Related | snobby | Snobby. |
- He is a terrible snob.Modern.
- Snob once meant cobbler.History.
- Thackeray fixed the sense.Literature.
How the meaning turned around
- 1780s — a shoemaker or cobbler
- 1790s — Cambridge slang for a townsman, not a student
- 1830s — a person of low rank aping their betters
- 1848 — Thackeray's Book of Snobs
- By the late 1800s — one who looks down on others
Origin unknown, recorded from the 1780s meaning a shoemaker.
Did snob always mean someone superior?
No. It meant a shoemaker, then a person of low rank imitating their betters. The modern sense reverses it entirely.
Is snob short for sine nobilitate?
No. That popular story about Latin for without nobility is a later invention with no evidence behind it.