snyrt

v. (past sg.)

'snicked, cut lightly' (Modern English )

Etymology

Generally derived from ON, cp. OIcel snerta, Norw snerta ‘to touch, concern’, Sw dial snärta ‘to strike lightly, rush’ (thus Knigge 1885: 79, Emerson 1922: 407, TGD, GDS, MED), < PGmc *snertan-, an extension of the root *sner-. With an underlying meaning '(lightly) touch', possible additional reflexes of the root include MHG snerzen ‘to taunt, jibe’ in WGmc, along with the onomatopoeic (or poss. sound-symbolic) MHG snarz, LG snart, snirt, snurt ‘fart’ and PDE snort; and in NGmc words exemplying a secondary sense development of 'cut off': e.g. Norw snerta (fem. n.) ‘stick (used in lighting a fire)’ and snarta (v.) ‘to trim off’. The latter sense might suggest an association with MnE dial. (Nhb.) snirt ‘to break off the angle of a hewn stone (etc.)’ (EDD). Whether the sense of ME need necessarily be explained by derivation from an ON etymon (as Sundén 1920: 143–6) is debatable, and the possibility of a WGmc root behind the Gaw v. cannot be discounted.

PGmc Ancestor

*sner-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

snerta, 'to touch, concern'
(ONP snerta (2) (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel snerta, Norw snerta, Sw dial snärta

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

BB2c

Attestation

Hapax legomenon, though cp. EDD s.v. snirt (v.2) 

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 2312

Gaw 2312 is generally parsed as past (thus TGD, GDS and most editors down to PS), but Vant reads it as an infin. (see his 2312n); on the sense see further McGee 347, who prefers the translation ‘touched’.

Bibliography

MED snirten (v.) , EDD snirt (v.2), Dance snyrt,  de Vries snerta (2), Mag. snerta