SNÁPR

(-s, -ar), m. dolt, fool (þú mant virðr sem hinn heimskasti s.).

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m. [? vulgar Engl. snob; N. Lancashire snape], a dolt, with the notion of impostor or charlatan; in the ancient law a person who attacks an innocent man, e. g. who falsely boasts of having dishonoured a woman, was called snápr, and was to be punished as if really guilty, and his fine was called snáps-gjöld or ‘snob’s fine,’ þar sem heimskir menn ok snápar ráða upp á saklausa menn, N. G. L. i. 20; nú vænisk maðr því at …, gjaldi slíkan rétt, sem hann væri sannr at því máli, ok heiti maðr at verri, þat heita snáps-gjöld, Gþl. 204: in mod. Icel., when a priest or a married man breaks the seventh commandment, and to escape degradation and punishment hires another person to bear the blame, this latter is called snápr; hence it has become a by-word, a dummy, dolt, idiot; þessir menn munu vera snápar ok hafa ekki komit fyrr í önnur lönd, Fms. ii. 64; þér sofit sem snápar, Edda (Gl.), Str. 71, Fas. ii. 225; skynlauss s., Stj. 473; at snápar snubbi þik, 423; viltir snápar, 418: an impostor, laga-snápr, a ‘whipper-snapper,’ pettifogger; orð-snápr, a ‘word-snob,’ babbler, Acts xvii. 18; sem margr snápr hefir svarat hér til, Gþl. 172.

II. the pointed end of a gimlet, pen, pencil, or the like, which may be the primitive sense of this word.