Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “snappy” come from?

Snappy derives from English snap plus the suffix -y, with snap coming from Dutch snappen, which was influenced by Middle French -ie and Latin -ia, -ivus, and -kos elements tracing to Proto-Indo-European roots.

snappy (English): Rapid and without delay; Irritable; Tidy;...

Definitions

  1. Rapid and without delay; Irritable; Tidy;...

Ancestry of “snappy”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
2Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
3Old English-iġ-y, -ic
4Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
5Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
6Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic

Words derived from “snappy”

  • snappily
  • snappiness
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →