snigger

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

British variant pronunciation and spelling of snicker.[1] This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈsnɪɡɚ/
  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈsnɪɡə(ɹ)/
  • Rhymes: -ɪɡə(ɹ)
  • (file)

Noun

snigger (plural sniggers)

  1. (chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) A partly suppressed or broken laugh.
  2. (chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) A sly or snide laugh.

Translations

Verb

snigger (third-person singular simple present sniggers, present participle sniggering, simple past and past participle sniggered)

  1. (intransitive, chiefly UK, Ireland, sometimes offensive elsewhere) To emit a snigger.
    • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, page 22:
      [] presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his bedraggled appearance.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      Peter, after the manner of man at the breakfast table, had allowed half his kedgeree to get cold and was sniggering over a letter. Sophia looked at him sharply. The only letter she had received was from her mother. Sophia's mother was not a humourist.

Synonyms

Translations

Usage notes

  • This term can be seen as offensive by those unaware of its etymology and meaning, especially in North America, because it can be misinterpreted as a variant or masking of the racial slur nigger. The two words are unrelated, both in etymology and meaning. In the British Isles, snigger is much more common than snicker and unlikely to mistaken for a slur. Elsewhere, snicker is the more common term, which increases the likelihood of snigger being mistaken for a slur.

References

  1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “snigger”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

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