noun
snob
snob
noun
1
A person who looks down on others they consider to have lower taste, status, or refinement.
"He's a total wine snob and won't drink anything under thirty pounds a bottle."
"She was branded a snob for refusing to shop anywhere but designer stores."
How to Use Snob
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishSomeone who acts superior because of their taste, wealth, or perceived class.
Common mistake
The popular idea that "snob" comes from Latin sine nobilitate ("without nobility") is a myth — it's a folk etymology with no real evidence.
Common pairings
a wine snob
an intellectual snob
a snob about
Word Forms
snobs plural
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He's a total wine _____ and won't drink anything under thirty pounds a bottle.
Etymology
Originally 18th-century English dialect for "cobbler." It later came to mean someone of lower status trying to imitate the upper classes, and eventually flipped to mean someone who looks down on others — a shift popularized by William Thackeray's The Book of Snobs (1848).