snoof

English

Etymology 1

Perhaps an alteration of sniff or snuff; or perhaps a blend of snort +‎ sniff.

Verb

snoof (third-person singular simple present snoofs, present participle snoofing, simple past and past participle snoofed)

1. To sniff around, usually in the search for food.

Etymology 2

Probably coined by Galsworthy (see quotations).

Adjective

snoof (comparative more snoof, superlative most snoof)

1. (humorous, nonstandard) Having lost the sense of smell.
   • 1928, John Galsworthy, Swan Song (A Modern Comedy part 3):

     Luckily, they're all ‘snoof’."
     "What?" said Michael […] .
     "It's a portmanteau syllable for 'Got no sense of smell to speak of.' And wanted, too. One says 'deaf,' 'blind,' 'dumb'—why not ‘snoof’?"

   • 1946, Una Jeffers to Dorothy Brett, The Collected Letters Of Robinson Jeffers. With Selected Letters Of Una Jeffers, volume 3, Stanford, p. 410:

     […] it means when a person lacks his sense of smell. I'm glad I'm not snoof.

   • 1966, Monroe C. Beardsley, Thinking Straight; Principles of Reasoning for Readers and Writers, Prentice-Hall, page 292:

     And the word "snoof" has been brought forth (by an analogy with "deaf") to describe someone who is devoid of, or deficient in, the sense of smell.

   • 1994, Diana Starr Cooper, Night After Night, Island Press, page 127:

     My mother-in-law, Louise Field Cooper, used the word snoof to convey some of this meaning, as in “he has such a bad cold he's gone totally snoof.

Anagrams

• foons

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oːf

Verb

snoof

1. singular past indicative of snuiven