Etymology

snell

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Today it means: Quick, smart; sharp, active, brisk or nimble; lively. Full definition →

Middle English snell ← Old English snell ← Proto-West Germanic *snell
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snell · adjective, adverb1

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*snellaz“active, swift, brisk”
  2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*snell
  3. Old English · inherited fromsnell
  4. Middle English · inherited fromsnell“quick, fast”
  5. English todaysnell

Inherited from Middle English snell (“quick, fast”) from Old English snell, snel (“lively, quick”) from Proto-West Germanic *snell, from Proto-Germanic *snellaz (“active, swift, brisk”). Akin to Dutch snel (“fast, quick”), German Low German snell (“quick”), German schnell (“quick, swift”), Yiddish שנעל (shnel, “quick, swift”), Italian snello (“quick, nimble”), Old French esnel, isnel (“snell”), and Occitan isnel, irnel (“snell”)), Old Norse snjallr (“skilful, excellent”) (whence Danish snild (“clever”)).

snell · noun, verb2

Unknown

Snell · proper noun3

  1. Dutch · derived fromsnel
  2. German · derived fromSchnell
  3. English todaySnell

English surname, from the adjective snell. See also Sneller, Snelling. Also Americanized from German Schnell and Dutch snel, of the same meaning.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.