Etymology

snoop

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Today it means: To be devious and cunning so as not to be seen. Full definition →

Dutch snoepen ← Old Norse snópa
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The story

  1. Old Norse · borrowed fromsnópa“to idle about dismally”
  2. Dutch · borrowed fromsnoepen“to pry, eat in secret, sneak”
  3. English todaysnoop

From Dutch snoepen (“to pry, eat in secret, sneak”) or maybe Old Norse snópa (“to idle about dismally”), or (“to use a blood found”). Related to Dutch and Low German snappen (“to bite, seize”), Dutch snavel (“beak, bill, pecker, neb”), German Schnabel (“beak, bill, mouth”). More at snap.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.