snob

snob (snðb) n. 1. One who overtly imitates, obsequiously admires, and offensively seeks to associate only with those one regards as one's superiors and who tends to rebuff or ignore altogether those one regards as one's inferiors. 2. One who affects an offensive air of self-satisfied superiority in matters of taste or intellect. --snobby adj.

Oh, we all know what a snob is, don't we? Most of us are snobs in one way or other.
But where does the word 'snob' come from?

In the old days, when it was a relatively new phenomenon for boys (yes, only boys at the time, I can't do anything about that) without noble or clerical background to arrive at college, the registrars - accurate and to-the-point as ever - would make a note of the common background of such students.
They would write 'sine nobilitate' in the marge of the page.
A Latin phrase that simply means: 'without nobility'.
Soon the phrase was abbreviated to 's. nob.' ..., and then to 'snob'.
Finally the word gained its present meaning: having presumptions above oneself.

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