Etymology

snap

S1N1A1P3

Today it means: A quick breaking or cracking sound or the action of producing such a sound. Full definition →

Low German snappen ← Dutch snappen ← Middle Dutch snappen
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The story

  1. Middle Dutchsnappen
  2. Dutchsnappen
  3. Low Germansnappen
  4. English todaysnap

From Dutch snappen (“to bite; seize”) or Low German snappen (“to bite; seize”), ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *snappōn, from Proto-Germanic *snappōną (“to snap; snatch; chatter”), intensive form of *snapāną (”to snap; grab”, whence Old Norse snapa (“to get; scrounge”)), from Proto-Indo-European *snop-; compare Lithuanian snãpas (“beak, bill”). (One alternative hypothesis links the Germanic words to *snu-, an expressive root deriving words meaning “nose”, “snout”, “sniff” etc., but this is phonetically unsound.) In any case influenced by onomatopoeia; note expressions such as snip-snap, containing the formally unrelated snip. Cognate with West Frisian snappe (“to get; catch; snap”), German schnappen (“to grab”), Swedish snappa (“to snatch”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.