snob

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who looks down on people considered socially inferior or tries to display supposedly superior taste or status

   He was too much of a snob to admit that he enjoyed the popular show.

Simplified etymology

Snob was first recorded in the late 18th century for a shoemaker or cobbler. It soon broadened to mean a person of humble rank or poor breeding, then shifted to its modern sense of someone who imitates or gives exaggerated respect to people considered socially superior. The popular derivation from Latin sine nobilitate, “without nobility,” is highly unlikely.

Late 18th century dialectal English snob (“cobbler”), of unknown origin. Early senses of the word carried the meaning of "lower status"; it was then used to describe those seeking to imitate those of higher wealth or status. Folk etymology derives it from the Latin phrase sine nobilitate (“without nobility”), but early uses had no connection to this. The modern sense was popularized by William Makepeace Thackeray in The Book of Snobs (1848).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary