Saturday, July 27, 2019

Snob = sine nobilitate (“without nobility”) (Folk etymology)


A popular false etymology for snob is that it’s a shortened form of the Latin phrase sine nobilitate, “without nobility.” This spurious origin of the word appears in Stanislav Szukalski’s Behold!!! The Protong, 4th ed. (San Francisco: Last Gasp, 2019), 13. First published in 1980, Behold!!! The Protong is a crackpot classic by a Polish-American sculptor, artist, and independent thinker with an abiding grudge against the Art Establishment. 



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