snub

Synonyms

give someone the cold shoulder turn the cold shoulder on someone cut someone cold cut someone dead rebuff repulse cut cold shoulder ignore disregard repel

Etymology

From Middle English snubben, snibben (noun), either indigenous or from Old Norse snubba (“to curse, chide, snub, scold, reprove, rebuff, infringe”), from Proto-Germanic *snūbaną, *snūpaną.
Related to English snip, snap, snape, sneap, to Old Norse sneypa (among more), to Proto-Germanic *snaupijaną.
The original sense is visible in Nordic cognates, to an original sense of “pinching off” (→ “to repress, infringe”), really “snipping off” (Old Norse sneypa, Norwegian Nynorsk snøypa, Swedish snöpa, snoppa, snipa, snippa (“to pinch off, to squeeze off, to castrate”)), with nouns denoting “pinched end → point” (cf. Swedish snip (“snout, spout”), snibb (“lobe”)).
Maybe distantly related to snoop (“be nosy”), to “pinched point” referencing snouts, i.e. the “pinched of point of the animal” (cf. Swedish snopp (“penis”)), then also maybe sniff. Compare Proto-Germanic *snabulaz; also English neb, nib (“beak, point”).
Other cognate forms: Danish snubbe, snibbe, snibe, snippe, sneppe, snøbba; Swedish snebba, snåipa, snypa, snyppa.

From Middle English snubben, snobben (“to sob”). Compare Dutch snuiven (“to snort, to pant”), German schnauben, German dialect schnupfen (“to sob”), and English snuff (transitive verb).