Cocking a snook
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
I wrote 'cocking a snook' in a blog comment the other day and as I typed it, I wondered if it was a universal saying.
I understand it to mean showing mocking disregard for something or someone, even contempt. I didn’t realise it described a gesture, the one where someone thumbs their nose at another person, or, as the internet informs me:-
‘place one's hand so that the thumb touches one's nose and the fingers are spread out, in order to express contempt.’
As I recall, the fingers are waggled, to exaggerate the gesture. The expression was first recorded in 1791, but became popular in the nineteenth century.
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Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
It is not particularly offensive, being used by children to tease their peers, or be rude to adults behind their backs. Sometimes, to exaggerate the gesture , the other hand is used, thumb to little finger, to make the meaning even clearer.
Apparently, it is a familiar gesture across Europe and in the USA.
I never heard it called anything but 'thumbing your nose' at something. I like your phrase better!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds more thrilling . . .
DeleteOkay...interesting but what is a "snook"? Where does the word come from?
ReplyDeleteI wondered that, but all I discovered was that 'snook' is a freshwater fish.
DeleteI use cocking a snoot in the way you have described it, but I would add one more element. Disrespectful to a poorer or less educated person.. a bit arrogant.
ReplyDeleteIt's disrespectful to anyone, really.😀
DeleteI have seen the gesture but didn't know cocking a snook. I heard it called thumbing your nose, but I like your name better!
ReplyDelete😀
DeleteI haven’t thought about this gesture or expression in many years. Fun to find out its origins. Thanks you!
ReplyDelete😀
DeleteThank you I should have said :)
ReplyDelete🤣😂
DeleteI think this one is far out of date everywhere except for older people who remember it. I can't remember ever hearing it, though I have heard "thumbing your nose", but again, not in a long while.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard it in many years.
DeleteLove it. I never learnt of this phrase.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice phrase, I think - colourful.
DeleteI didn't know it's called that. Every day's a school day!
ReplyDeleteLive and learn . . . 😁
DeleteI have taught each of my grandchildren this cheeky gesture, opps!
ReplyDeleteNaughty, naughty!
DeleteI can't recall ever having heard a name for this gesture. I don't think I've seen it in a very long time either. Recognising it at all might go back to my early childhood (?)
ReplyDeleteOh, dear, I realise more and more how old-fashioned I am . . . perhaps I should try the street lingo, bro!
DeleteI have definitely seen the gesture made before but didn't know it was called by a particular name. Cocking a snook is a fun name for it. It makes me smile when I say it for some reason.
ReplyDeleteIt is a great expression.
DeleteI had never heard this expression and googled ! they say
ReplyDelete"The origin of "snook", is the word "snook"! "Snook" means: a gesture of defiance, disrespect, or derision. "Cock" here means to lift up, as in lift up your hand, or "cock your rifle". So, its origin just comes from saying "Lift up a ! Now I have to wait for an occasion to use it !!
The next time you get an unreasonable demand for paperwork would be a good time to use it!
DeleteIsn't that statue superb, yes I did that as a child behind someone's back!
ReplyDeleteI do admire sculptors - well, any artist really.
DeleteI once did that in fun, not realizing exactly what it meant.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's particularly rude, just a bit cheeky.
DeleteI know the gesture, but not the phrase. (In fact I first read it as "Catching a snook," which in Florida is a type of fish!)
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get any further than finding that snook is a freshwater fish. How can that gesture be anything to do with a fish, unless the waggling fingers are reminders of fins? Strange!
DeleteOh my gosh this brings back not very pleasant memories of school days. When we thumbed our noses at each other and our teachers. Oh yes the teachers were nuns and believe me the reward for that was painful.
ReplyDeleteIt never fails to surprise me that nuns and monks were often very harsh disciplinarians in school - not all orders, of course.
Deletethis has been around here in USA all of my 80 years. we used to do it in school, or others did, I was not brave enough to do it. we called it thumb your nose, with waggling fingers or stiff. the snook is new to me..
ReplyDeleteModern children use far more robust, obscene gestures and words.
DeleteThat gesture is not at all acceptable. Maybe things have changed, but no decent person would ever do that where I grew up. Maybe people don't grasp the meaning. Or maybe I'm an old fogey! Yes, that's probably it.
ReplyDeleteThe gestures and expressions people use these days are far more offensive and hurtful.
DeleteMy mother used to make that gesture (not at me) but what it is called was a new one one me. Sounds very British, though, I must say.
ReplyDeleteIt was never good to be caught making that gesture!
DeleteI wonder if the word means something in Yiddish. I say that because there was a weekly comic radio program I remember from childhood back in the late 1940s, early 1950s, called Baby Snooks. It’s star was Fanny Brice, about whom the musical production Funny Girl was written. Just a thought.💭
DeleteYou could well be right, but I can't find anything to support that.
DeleteI'd never heard of this. Maybe it's just not a thing in my part of the US!
ReplyDeleteIt's quite an old expression and rather out of date, I fear.
DeleteIs it a dismissive gesture, like 'thumbing your nose', or something more general? Interesting article!
ReplyDeleteIt is exactly that.
DeleteI had thought this just a Northern expression so it's interesting to learn that it is widespread. There are so many things that we say with no knowledge of their source. I went on a tour of Shakespeare's houses in Stratford many years ago where the origins of many expressions such as 'bed and board' and 'sleep tight' were explained. It was fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy learning the origins of words and phrases. Often, if they haven't come from the Bible, they've come from Shakespeare.
DeleteI (probably completely wrongly) think of it as related to 'sneck'
ReplyDeleteSneck is part of the door furniture. I found this online:
Delete'Some Scots words can have more than one meaning or may be applied to different things… One such word is a 'sneck' usually given to a door-latch or small bolt used to secure a door. It is also sometimes used to describe snapping or biting at food or pilfering.'
I didn't realise it was a Scottish word, but thought it was midlands and northern dialect.
I have never heard that saying before.
ReplyDeleteI think it's probably quite British.
DeleteCocking a snook is new to me. Well, the saying is, not the gesture, obviously, which I guess is quite universal! xxx
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting, as you so often have Dutch expressions that equate to English ones.
ReplyDeleteMaybe snook is a corruption of snoot (or snout) as suggested by someone above. The gesture seems to have traveled around the world. My father taught it to us but was used more in fun - like 'i got one over on you'.
ReplyDeleteIt could well be - it only takes one alternative pronunciation for a word to change irrevocably.
DeleteI am familiar with the gesture, but had not heard the term.
ReplyDeleteIt appears to be an archaic British expression - only to be expected from an archaic Brit!
DeleteI hadn't heard the phrase before.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't seem to have crossed the pond!
DeleteThat sculpture is good isn't it.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a well known/recognised gesture with younger children.
All the best Jan
I love sculptures of children.
DeleteHa ha! I like the sculpture. I didn't know the saying, but I remember doing that as a child
ReplyDeleteWe were all so naughty, weren't we? 😁
DeleteI never knew that was cocking a snook. I was with Terry Pratchett, to paraphrase, I don't possess a snook and I wouldn't know how to cock it.
ReplyDeleteThank you!