Where does “snuff” come from?

Snuff comes from Dutch snuffen, meaning to sniff or snuffle, though the exact semantic path to the English sense remains unclear.

snuff (English): Finely ground or pulverized tobacco intended for...

Definitions

  1. Finely ground or pulverized tobacco intended for...

Ancestry of “snuff”, step by step

snuff traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Dutch snuf

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Dutchsnufsmell, odor; snuff, sniffle
2Dutchsnuffento snuff

via Middle English snoffe

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishsnoffe—

Words derived from “snuff”

Every word from Dutch snuffen →Every word from Dutch snuf →