I like to learn new words everyday and recently I came across this funny yet arcane sounding word called Snickersnee (sometimes also misspelled as Snickersee ).
Meaning of Snickersnee
So what does Snickersnee mean and is it still in popular use today? First of all, you are not going to come across this word in daily use in media. However, if you listen to the comic opera Mikado, you might have noticed it. But again, how many of us would listen to that funny stuff.
The etymology of this word goes back couple of centuries ago when this word was more of a phrase rather than a single word. It went something like this – steake or snye and sometimes stick or snee, snick or snee, snick-a-snee etc. The origin of this word is from Holland or Dutch as they like to call themselves.
The idiomatic expression refers to a kind of hand-to-hand combat with sharp long knives, or — by the begining of 20th century — to the knife one did it with.