To Snuff Out a Candle and to Take Snuff Are Related
Snuff is powdered tobacco taken through the nose. The verb to snuff out comes from trimming a candle wick.
Snuff is finely powdered tobacco inhaled through the nose, and to *snuff* is to extinguish. The candle sense came first and was originally the opposite of extinguishing: *snuff* named the burnt part of a wick, and to snuff a candle meant trimming that away to make it burn brighter. Only later did *snuff out* mean putting it out entirely. *Up to snuff* meant sharp or knowing, since taking snuff was a mark of a worldly man.
- Powdered tobacco. *A pinch of snuff.*
- To extinguish. *Snuff the candle.*
- A burnt wick. *The snuff of a candle.*
- Up to snuff — of good quality. *Up to snuff.*
- Middle Dutch — *snuffen*, to sniff. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | snuff | Snuff. |
| Verb | snuff | Snuff it out. |
| Past | snuffed | Snuffed. |
| Tool | snuffers | Candle snuffers. |
| Phrase | up to snuff | Up to snuff. |
- He took a pinch of snuff.Tobacco.
- Snuff out the candles.Extinguish.
- The work is not up to snuff.Idiom.
Candle vocabulary
- Snuff — the charred end of a wick
- Snuffers — scissors for trimming it, not for extinguishing
- Douter — the cone-shaped tool that actually puts a candle out
- Guttering — a candle burning unevenly and dripping
- Taper — a thin candle, or a wick for lighting others
The tobacco sense is from Dutch *snuf*, short for *snuftabak*. The candle sense is Middle English *snoffe*, a burnt wick, of uncertain origin.
Did snuffing a candle mean putting it out?
Originally the opposite. It meant trimming the burnt wick so the candle burned brighter. Snuff out came later.
What does up to snuff mean?
Of an acceptable standard. It comes from the idea that a man who took snuff was worldly and hard to deceive.