snide(adj.)
1859年,盗贼俚语中的“伪造的,假的,劣质的”,一个起源不明的词。《世纪词典》认为它是 snithe 的方言变体,它本身是一个形容词,意思是“锋利的,切割的”,用于描述风,来自中古英语动词 snithen “切割”,源自古英语 snithan,与德语 schneiden 同源。
最早的用法似乎最常用于伪造硬币。法默和亨利(“俚语及其类似语言”,1903年)将其定义为“糟糕的,悲惨的,可鄙的,或(军队)肮脏的”。1874年(霍滕)时,用于描述人,“以低劣的狡猾和狡猾的行为为特征”。“嘲笑”的意义可以追溯到1928年,也许是通过早期的名词意义“伪善,恶意的闲话”(1902年)传递而来的。相关: Snidely; snideness。
The tradition that a first-rate man is less a first-rate man if, encountering a snide detraction of himself that has no respect for the facts, he makes a critical riposte, strikes me as being just about as silly as anything I have run across during many years spent in this silly world. I speak, of course and obviously enough, not of snide criticism written by essentially snide men, but of the species of snide criticism that is every once in a while written by men who should know better. [George Jean Nathan, "Clinical Notes," The American Mercury, June 1928]
传统认为,如果一位一流的人遇到了一种没有尊重事实的恶意诋毁,他如果做出批评性的回应,就不再是一位一流的人,这种传统对我来说就像我在这个愚蠢的世界上度过的许多年中遇到的最愚蠢的事情之一。当然,我说的是那些本质上是卑鄙的人写的恶意批评,而不是那些偶尔会被那些应该知道得更好的人写出来的恶意批评。[乔治·让·内森,“临床笔记”,《美国水银》杂志,1928年6月]
该词起源时间:1859年