snub

From Middle English snubben, snibben (noun), either from an undocumented Old English [Term?] or from Old Norse snubba (“to curse, chide, snub, scold, reprove, rebuff, infringe”), from Proto-Germanic *snūbaną, *snūpaną.

Related to English snip, snap, snape, sneap, to Old Norse sneypa (among more), to Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną.

The original sense is visible in Nordic cognates, to an original sense of “pinching off” (→ “to repress, infringe”), really “snipping off” (Old Norse sneypa, Norwegian Nynorsk snøypa, Swedish snöpa, snoppa, snipa, snippa (“to pinch off, to squeeze off, to castrate”)), with nouns denoting “pinched end → point” (cf. Swedish snip (“snout, spout”), snibb (“lobe”)).

Maybe distantly related to snoop (“be nosy”), to “pinched point” referencing snouts, i.e. the “pinched of point of the animal” (cf. Swedish snopp (“penis”)), then also maybe sniff. Compare Proto-Germanic *snabulaz; also English neb, nib (“beak, point”).

Other cognate forms: Danish snubbe, snibbe, snibe, snippe, sneppe, snøbba; Swedish snebba, snåipa, snypa, snyppa.

From Middle English snubben, snobben (“to sob”). Compare Dutch snuiven (“to snort, to pant”), German schnauben, German dialect schnupfen (“to sob”), and English snuff (transitive verb).