Snip comes from Low German or Dutch snippen ('to cut, snip'), of imitative origin, suggesting the quick sound of scissors. The historical chain includes Dutch snippen. The quoted older sense, "to cut, snip," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for snip. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word snip carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a verb, "to cut with small quick strokes of scissors, or a small cut". English derivatives include snipper, snippet, snippy, and snips. The result is a verb and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.