Snitch (pronounced snich)
(1) To
snatch or steal; pilfer.
(2) To
turn informer; tattle.
(3) Among
the criminal classes, a slang term for the nose.
(4) A
tiny morsel of food (rare).
(5) A
ball used in the fictional sport of Quidditch.
1785:
The sense of “an informer" was probably from underworld slang meaning
"the nose", a use dating from circa 1700, apparently a development of
the earlier (1670s) meaning "fillip on the nose"; snitcher in same
sense is from 1827. The alternative
etymology suggests a dialectal variant of sneak, perhaps even an imperfect
echoic. Sneak was from the Middle
English sniken, from the Old English snīcan (to creep; to crawl). The meaning "to steal, to pilfer"
is attested from 1904 and is possibly a variant of snatch.
The
nouns snitcher and snitch are synonymous with informer, other synonyms being blabbermouth,
double-crosser, turncoat, sneak, squealer, source, fink, stoolie, betrayer,
tattler, snitcher, tattletale, informant, rat, weasel, narc, whistle-blower,
tipster, canary & nark although some are more weighted than others in the
ways they’re used by the criminal classes.
Dob (pronounced dob)
(1) As the acronym DOB (DoB; D.O.B. etc), date of birth.
(2) In Australian slang, usually as “dob in”, to snitch
or inform on someone.
(3) An acronym for many things: Date of Business; Department
of Banking; Difficulty of Breathing; Data Object et al.
(4) In Northern Irish slang, to play truant from school.
(5) As dob (do one’s best), the accessory term to dib
(from dyb (do your best)) in some of the rituals of the Boy Scout movement.
1950s: The etymology of dob as Australian slang for “to
inform upon”; “to report someone’s transgression to the authorities”, is
mysterious. Unlike many forms, it seems
to have emerged late, the fist known instance in print being from 1955. It’s curious because the British dialect dob
(to put down an article heavily or clumsily; to throw down; to throw stones at
a mark) would doubtless have been known in Australia from the earliest days of
white settlement (1788-on) but there’s no obvious connection. Dictionaries of Australian slang do report
other meanings including “to contribute money to a common cause”, and “impose
upon someone a responsibility to perform and unwanted or unpopular task”, the
former with some relation to the British forms, the latter something of a
variation on “dobbing in” in its usual sense.
Also noted is the use in Australian Rules (VFL, ALF etc) football to
mean “to kick (the ball) long and accurately; to kick (a goal)”, again with
some relation to the British dialectical form relating to the throwing stones
or certain actions in the game of marbles.
The etymology of dob in Australia is regarded as unknown. That dob (meaning a snitch) appears not to have been in use until the 1950s suggests many of the influences on the language which can account for some evolutions or innovations (US English, exposure to foreign languages during wartime) weren’t involved. Nor was that other profound effect: television, which wasn’t introduced until 1956. The 1950s was a time of high immigration to Australia, and for the first time by a large number of those for who English wasn’t their first language but no evidence of a connection has ever been offered. That leaves the British dialectal dob as the likely origin and during the second half of the nineteenth century, the influence of these words on the local dialect was at its greatest so all that is needed to explain it is the etymological missing link. The was also a historic use for dob as a companion word to dib (the phonetic form of the acronym DYB (do your best)), dob in this context standing for “do one’s best”, the abbreviated dib and dob used in certain chants in the rituals of the Boy Scout movement. Once seen as an admirable institution to inculcate the values essentials in the development of youth, decades of scandal and critical analysis mean it’s now thought something between quaint and seriously weird.
Mr Abbott was fined Aus$500 after a member of the public informed the police, providing photographic evidence as proof of him out and about in public without a mask, in violation of the rules. Denying guilt, Mr Abbott claimed he was "well within the law, reasonably interpreted”, although he wasn't going to challenge the fine, not wishing to "waste police time". He further added he thought the current regime "rather oppressive”. While not greatly inconvenienced by the Aus$500 fine, Mr Abbott was concerned at the corrosive effect of the laws, saying that he "...never thought dobbing and snitching was part of the Australian character", and that he thought "...as soon as we can leave this health-police state mindset behind us, the better for everyone.” Even before falling victim to snitchers and dobbers, Mr Abbott had delivered a speech in which he said there were "...aspects of contemporary Australia, which I personally find a little bit unsettling", noting especially "...the readiness of people to dob and snitch on their neighbours worries me a lot, frankly.” He thought this something like the behavior of those in the former GDR (German Democratic Republic, the old East Germany) who dobbed in fellow citizens to the Stasi, the secret police.
As a victim of the fascist-pig state, Mr Abbott resorted to the
dissident's trick of tautology to emphasise his point, "snitch" and
"dob" in this context meaning the same thing.
There may be some nuances in that "snitch" probably more
overtly reeks of criminality but technically, certainly regarding those reported for flouting public-health regulations, the words are synonymous. It's not known
how many informers the NSW Minister of Heath recruited to his mask-Stasi to
dob and snitch on the unmasked but if Mr Abbott is right and it’s something
like the Stasi, on the basis of estimates of those used in the GDR, in a state
with the population of New South Wales, the number could have been anything between
250,000 and a million.
Fellow dissident, former deputy prime- minister Barnaby Joyce (b 1967, thrice
deputy PM (between various unpleasantnesses) 2016-2022)) was in June fined
Aus$200 after he was dobbed-in when masklessly buying fossil-fuel at an
Armidale petrol station. Unlike Mr
Abbott, Mr Joyce admitted he was guilty as sin and copped it sweet.
