" SNEAP " AND "SNUB."
[To ma EDITOR 01 TN11 "SPECTATOR." J 'Snt,-1 am informed by a Lincolnshire man that in his part of the country the word " snipy " (i long), as equivalent to 4' fault-finding," is in regular use. With regard. to the form 4' snib," noted by my friend, Mr. P. T. Kenway, in the Spectator of September 22nd, as occurring in the marginal note of an old edition of "The Pilgrim's Progress," it is found four hundred years earlier in the Northumbrian Psalter, a metrical translation by an unknown author. In Psalm xviii., 15, where the Authorised Version (speaking of the Almighty) reads " at thy rebuke," the Northumbrian Version has "for thi snibbing." The same thing occurs in Psalm civ., 7. It is quite likely that some of your readers could suggest examples earlier than these, since the word is the Danish snibbe, " to scold," and was brought in by the Scandinavian invaders. It is the same word as " snip," " to cut short," whence also snub- nose.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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