Origin:
“The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits” by Lewis Carroll. The Snark, which may also be a Boojum, is the creature sought by the Bellman & crew.
Traditional Use:
From Merriam-Webster’s:
Main Entry: snarky
Pronunciation: ‘snär-kE
Function: adjective
Etymology: dialect snark to annoy, perhaps alteration of nark to irritate
Date: 1906 : CROTCHETY, SNAPPISH
From YourDictionary.com:
snark·y (snärk)
adj. Slang snark·i·er, snark·i·est
Irritable or short-tempered; irascible.
[From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort, from Dutch and Low German snorken, of imitative origin.]
snarki·ly adv.
Beaver’s mom was fond of using snarky in this fashion to describe young Beaver. Thanks, mom! 😉
How “snark” entered the Toasted Cheese lexicon:
Back in pre-TC days, we met at another writing site. On May 22, 2000, while “passing notes” during a writing class, Baker said: “I’m sitting here making smarmy, snorting noises which I mentally nicknamed snarks. My goal is to snark less @ the current posts.” It snowballed from there. We became “the snarkers”, and when we started our own website, Bellman suggested “The Hunting of the Snark” for our theme. Could it have been anything else?
The Derivatives:
snark (noun)
1. Less-than-stellar creative endeavors, e.g. writing, movies, TV programs, music, etc. Generally, snark is that which is enjoyably bad (cheesy), as opposed to that which is painful or cringeworthy to witness.
2. Particular attributes of a creative endeavor that are laughably bad. With reference to editing, snark is what must be eliminated!
snark (verb)
Variant: snerk
snarks, snarked, snarking
1. What one does when reading/watching/listening to snark. Often one snarks audibly, but one can snark silently too (this is better if you’re in a public place).
snarker(s) (noun)
1. One who snarks.
2. One who seeks out snark in an attempt to banish it.
snarkolicious (adjective)
1. Someone who knows how to snark, and shares that talent with others, e.g. the recappers at TWoP are snarkolicious.
2. Snark that’s soooo bad it’s good. If it’s beyond snarky, it’s snarkolicious! Example: We once read a story on a forum that was written from the PoV of a rabbit. Said rabbit was scooped by a hawk and then dropped onto a highway and run over. It ended with the word “Bummer”. Now that’s snarkolicious!
