snitch

The story

1. Old English · inherited fromsnīcan“to creep; crawl”
2. Middle English · inherited fromsniken
3. Middle English · inherited fromsnacche“a trap, snare”
4. English todaysnitch

Origin uncertain. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English snacche (“a trap, snare”), snacchen (“to seize (prey)”, whence modern English snatch). Compare also Middle English snik snak (“a sudden blow, snap”). Alternatively, perhaps from a dialectal variant of sneak, from Middle English sniken, from Old English snīcan (“to creep; crawl”). More at sneak, snatch.