snob

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Caricature in Book of Snobs by William M. Thackeray, 1868

The term snob , Germanized from English, describes a person who, through their behavior or their statements, aggressively flaunts wealth and social superiority over people who are supposedly or actually of lower rank.

The allegation of being a snob applies to people with a particular form of arrogance .

Historical creation

Presumed origin

There are different variants of the genesis of the term snob . What is certain is that it spread to Great Britain in the 18th century . It was used as an addition to the names of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford .

Widespread, but etymologically dropped, is the explanation that snob was originally s. nob. was written as an abbreviation for sine nobilitate ( Latin for "without title of nobility "), so that, initially as a student at one of these universities, aristocrats would not appear without an addition to their name. One suspicion is that snob had the meaning "shoemaker's apprentice " (in Scotland : snab ) in the oldest written source of this word and that in the lists of names of these two universities it did not denote non-nobles but non-students. Most likely, it seems that the term originated in fact in the meaning "shoemaker's apprentice" and later mistaken for an abbreviation for sine nobilitate has been held, with the misinterpretation then become independent so that in England in the late 18th and early 19th In the 19th century, non-aristocratic pomposors with this pseudo-nobility title stole access to clubs and other institutions reserved for aristocrats.

Changed meaning in the 19th century

The term “snob” gradually changed its meaning until the middle of the 19th century in the sense of an upstart from lower social classes , who looks down with contempt at people who remained there. A milestone in the history of the term "snob" was The Book of Snobs by William M. Thackeray , published in 1848 .

Economic understanding

In economics (especially consumer research ) the snob is understood as an individualist and counterpart of the follower . He is characterized by the consumption of exclusive products, regardless of their price.

Comedic processing

An interesting variant of snobbery is its reversal in the form of the "noble comedian ": Up until the 18th century, comic characters were fundamentally differentiated from tragic, aristocratic characters. Since the 19th century there was among some aristocrats, out of political or social convictions, an "arrogance towards arrogance", which was shown in disregard for befitting behavior, for example with Karl von Holtei . Carl Sternheim's comedy Der Snob was best known before the First World War . The tradition of the aristocratic comedian still exists today, for example with Loriot or Louis de Funès .

See also

literature

  • Jasper Griffin : Snobs. Compiled by Jasper Griffin. Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York 1982.
  • Jasper Griffin: The art of snobbery. Robinson, London 1998.
  • William Makepeace Thackeray: The Book of Snobs . Punch Office, London, 1868. ( Online in Google Book Search)

Footnotes

  1. Full text online