Talk:snap

Request for verification
Rfv-sense: "Brisk, cold weather that passes quickly." (N.B. the example was added later.) —Ruakh TALK 16:09, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * The example is cold snap. I've heard that very often, but never snap for weather outside of that phrase. Equinox ◑ 16:12, 29 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, that's definitely what a cold snap: is in the UK - not really sure about snap: itself. (edit conflict!) SemperBlotto 16:13, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, in the U.S. as well. I am definitely not questioning "cold snap". —Ruakh TALK 17:09, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * "A cold snap"; "a snap of cold"; "the air/breeze/wind had a snap to it"; "a snap in the air/wind/breeze". There seems to me some transfer of meaning among these common usages. I can't sort it out (yet?). Is it "the sensation of cold/dry on the skin/nose/throat" that unifies these? DCDuring TALK 18:22, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I understand the "snap" as being a spell, i.e. the period of weather, not its effects. Equinox ◑ 18:44, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I had been looking at COCA which makes certain kinds of searches (collocations, hyphenation) easier than Google. I could not find any kind of snap except cold and cool there. On b.g.c. there are "hot snap"s, so I expect that other weather-related senses are possible. I wonder whether it is only weather or if social atmosphere or musical mood can have a "snap". DCDuring TALK 20:22, 29 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Merriam-Webster Online, defines it as a "sudden spell of weather"... --BigBadBen 20:43, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

RFV failed. I've rewritten the sense to remove the claims about coldness. —Ruakh TALK 14:31, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Snap
I get the feeling that "snap" as "A photograph (an abbreviation of snapshot)" is primarily a UK thing. Correct? Tuckerresearch (talk) 17:24, 27 October 2012 (UTC)

Euphemism
I think "oh snap" is a euphemism for "oh shit". AmericanLeMans (talk) 23:42, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

adverb
(adverb): in such a way as to make a sharp sound Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 --Backinstadiums (talk) 12:13, 7 February 2020 (UTC)

RFD discussion: September 2019
The adjective section: not an adjective. 31.173.85.103 18:19, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * What part of speech is it, then, in "a snap judgment or decision; a snap political convention"? Equinox ◑ 18:36, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Your judgement is snap, but is it snap enough for this day and age? It can be argued that it is the noun, sense 10 (“a very short period of time (figuratively, the time taken to snap one's fingers), or a task that can be accomplished in such a period”). See also Requests for deletion/English. --Lambiam 20:52, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * "Guitarist Scott Smith writes the snappest songs, but other members of the Surfdusters are not bad song writers." DTLHS (talk) 21:19, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * That seems tenuous. How are readers to know that the noun snap can be used in these constructions when moment, jiffy, sec, etc. cannot? Equinox ◑ 21:21, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Not saying it is necessarily applicable here, but in cases where a noun can be used attributively in a distinct or not-very-predictable way, we can always add a separate noun definition labelled "attributive". Mihia (talk) 19:42, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Keep. According to Oxford it is also an attributive adjective. DonnanZ (talk) 23:08, 20 September 2019 (UTC)


 * In my opinion this is very technically not a true adjective, but is "de facto" enough of an adjective to keep. It is a highly borderline case. Mihia (talk) 01:04, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * An argument in favour of adjectivality (when used as an attribute of a noun) is the relative lack of stress. An attributive noun is stressed in English. Compare square form (adjective) with square formula  (attributive noun).  --Lambiam 11:33, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Keep per WT:LEMMING (not a policy): an adjective section is found in M-W, AHD, Collins, Lexico, Macmillan, dictionary.cambridge.org. --Dan Polansky (talk) 18:18, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Gonna say keep, by the way, because of commonness in adjective position and apparently not quite the same meaning (or not easily derivable from the noun), oh and lemmings. Equinox ◑ 18:40, 21 September 2019 (UTC)


 * Keep, but move the adjective to a new Etymology with "Ellipsis of " as it's origin. Leasnam (talk) 20:03, 23 September 2019 (UTC)
 * It doesn't seem very likely to me that that is the origin. Mihia (talk) 16:34, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
 * The sense evolution is snap "clicky sound" > "snap (with one's fingers)" = making a snap-sound with your fingers > snapping sound associated with quick motion of the fingers > 'in a snap' = quickly, in an instant > snap = instant. It's easy to see with terms like 'snap election' "an election that happens as fast as the snap of the fingers" Leasnam (talk) 02:11, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 * Well, the meanings of "snap" in "in a snap" and "snap election" are of course related, having a common ancestor in the idea that a "snap" is some kind of short, sharp event. However, my view is that the attributive/adjectival use of "snap" in e.g. "snap election" is unlikely to directly derive from a shortening of the expression "in a snap" as your proposed etymology would suggest. I don't see that it would even make grammatical sense for it to do so. I don't see any reason to think that the idea of "snap" in "snap election" came specifically through that phrase. Mihia (talk) 10:31, 27 September 2019 (UTC)
 * I agree with your point: not directly from "in a snap", but that type of usage has back-fed into 'snap' to produce the attributive sense. Leasnam (talk) 16:05, 27 September 2019 (UTC)


 * kept by consensus and lemmings. I added a quote to snap.

Canadians say "snap!", do we?
I think we hear an American say "snap!" in a movie, and then we come to Wiktionary in answer to the question, "What the hell does snap! mean?" Varlaam (talk) 22:35, 16 November 2023 (UTC)