March 6, 2001

snickersnee

I took up crossword puzzles as a way to improve my vocabulary and spelling. Several times the clue has been snick or _____, with the answer snee being found in the other clues. So, although I have not seen this phrase used in context, I would like to know its definition and how it's used.

The classic crossword clue for snee is "cut, old style." (As if its archaic status weren't obvious!) The term snick or snee (also written snick and snee) means 'to fight by cutting and/or thrusting with a swordlike knife'. It's also a noun meaning 'the act of fighting with such a knife', or it could refer to the knife itself. An earlier form of this term was stick or snee 'to thrust or cut', from Dutch stecken 'to thrust, stick' and snijden 'to cut'. By the end of the 17th century, this three-word term was contracted into the single word snickersnee, which is both a verb and a noun. Historically this swordlike weapon was used by the Dutch, but a well-known example of its brandishing occurs in an English operetta with a Japanese setting. Here are William S. Gilbert's lyrics from The Mikado, sung by Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner:

In a state of wild alarm--
With a frightful, frantic, fearful frown,
I bared my big right arm.
I seized him by his little pig-tail,
And on his knees fell he,
As he squirmed and struggled,
And gurgled and guggled,
I drew my snickersnee!
Oh, never shall I
Forget the cry,
Or the shriek that shrieked he,
As I gnashed my teeth,
When from its sheath
I drew my snickersnee!

William S. Gilbert didn't invent the word snickersnee. Supposedly he owned such a sword which hung in the library of his London home. One day, as Gilbert was experiencing writer's block, his snickersnee suddenly fell off the wall. It was at that moment that he conceived the idea for The Mikado.

Though best known for his collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, William S. Gilbert also wrote a number of poems. "The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell'" is a gruesome verse about sailors and cannibalism. A poem with a very similar gruesome theme is "Little Billee," by W. M. Thackeray. In Thackeray's poem, two cannibalistic sailors, one of whom is in possession of a snickersnee, contrive to eat Billee, their fellow sailor, who luckily manages to escape. The frightened Billee says:

First let me say my catechism
Which my poor mother taught to me.
"Make haste! make haste!" says guzzling Jimmy,
While Jack pulled out his snickersnee.

Snickersnee is an archaic term, but it's occasionally used figuratively, as when politicians, journalists, or critics wield their clout against their enemies. For example, Howard W. Smith, a Virginia Democrat, defended his use of the House Rules Committee chairmanship to block civil-rights legislation: "...you grasp any snickersnee you can get hold of and fight the best way you can."

Carol