Snack (pronounced snak)
(1) A small portion of food or drink or a light meal,
especially one eaten between regular meals.
(2) In the phrase “go snack”, to share profits or returns
(archaic).
(3) In slang, someone physically attractive and sexually
desirable (regionally limited).
(4) To have a snack or light meal, especially between
regular meals:
1300–1350: From the Middle English verb snacchen, snacche, snache & snak & noun snacche, snak & snakee
(to snap at, bite, seize (as of dogs) and cognate with the Middle Dutch snacken (to snap (as of dogs), from snakken and a variant of snappen (to snap)) and the Norwegian
dialect snaka (to snatch (as of
animals)). In many European languages,
snack is used in the same sense though in Swedish technically it’s deverbal of snacka (to chat, to talk). The pleasing recent noun snackette is either
(1) A small shop or kiosk selling snacks or (2) smaller than usual snacks (the
word often used by dieters to distinguish their snacks from the more indulgent
choices of others). The synonyms include
morsel, refreshment, bite, eats, goodies, nibble, pickings & tidbit. Snack is a noun, adjective & verb,
snacking and snacked are verbs; the noun plural is snacks.
Cadbury Snack.
The original Middle English verb (to bite
or snap (as of dogs), probably came either from the Middle Dutch or Flemish snacken (to snatch, snap; chatter), the
source of which is uncertain although one etymologist traces it to a
hypothetical Germanic imitative root snu-
used to form words relating to the snout or nose. The sense of "having a bite to eat; a
morsel or light meal” dates from 1807. The
noun snack (a snatch or snap (especially that of a dog) developed from the verb
and emerged circa 1400. The meaning
extended to "a snappish remark" by the 1550s and "a share,
portion, part" by the 1680s (hence the now archaic expression “go snacks”
which meant "share, divide; have a share in"). The familiar modern meaning "a small dish
morsel to eat hastily" was first noted in 1757. The first snack bar (a place selling snacks)
seems to have opened in 1923 and the similar (often smaller, kiosk-type
operations) snackettes were a creation of US commerce in the 1940s. Snack bars could be either stand-alone businesses
or something operating within a stadium, theatre, cinema etc. The commercial plural form snax was coined in
1942 for the vending machine trade and the term “snack table” has been in use
since circa 1950.
Nestlé Salted Caramel Munchies.
Functionally (though not etymologically) related was munchies
(food or snack) from 1959, the plural of the 1917 munchie (snack eaten to
satisfy hunger) from the 1816 verb munch (to eat; to chew). The familiar (to some) phrase “got the
munchies” in the sense of "craving for food after smoking weed (marijuana)"
was US stoner slang which was first documented in 1971 but Nestlé corporation’s Munchies weren’t an opportunistic
attempt to grab the attention of weed smokers.
Munchies pre-date the slang use of the word by over a decade, introduced
in 1957 by the Mackintosh company, Nestlé acquiring the brand in 1988 when it acquired
Rowntree Mackintosh and it’s not known if
the slang use can be attributed to some stoner coming back from the shop with a
bag-full of the snacks and telling his grateful companions “I’ve got the Munchies”. Munchies were originally milk chocolates with
a caramel and biscuit centre but the range has in recent years proliferated to
include centres of mint fondant, chocolate fudge, cookie dough and salted caramel. The latest variation has been to use a white
chocolate shell, this described as a “limited-edition” but it’s presumed if
demand exists, it will become a standard line.
Stocking up: Lindsay Lohan buying snacks, London, 2008.
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