snore

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To breathe noisily through your nose and mouth while you are asleep.

   My grandfather snores so loudly that we can hear him downstairs.

2. 2
   noun

   The noisy breathing sound a person makes while asleep.

   His loud snores kept the whole family awake.

From Middle English snoren, fnoren (“to snore loudly; snort”), from Middle English snore, *fnore (“snore; snort”, noun), from Old English fnora (“snort; sneezing”), from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; snort; sneeze”). Compare also Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, Middle Low German snorren (“to drone”), Dutch snorren (“to hum, purr”). The change fn → sn in this word is regular, seen also in sneeze, from Middle English fnesen (see sneeze for more).

Topics