▪ I. ˈsnotty, n. slang.
A midshipman.
| 1903 in Farmer & Henley. 1904 Kipling Traffics & Discov. 109 He was the second cutter's snotty—my snotty—on the Archimandrite. 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin vi. 95 No boat ever left the ship under steam or sail without a ‘snotty’ in charge. 1943 Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 61 Snotty, midshipman. (So called after the buttons on his sleeve, which are said to be there for a purpose not unconnected with the nickname.) 1974 P. Dickinson Poison Oracle ii. 47 A British Naval Party under the command of a snappily saluting little snotty. |
▪ II. snotty, a.
(ˈsnɒtɪ)
[f. snot n. Cf. MDu. snottich, NFris. snottig, older Da. sn{obar}ttig, obs. G. schnutzig. The variant snatty appears earlier.
The word occurs also as a n. in dial. use; see the Eng. Dial. Dict. and Jamieson's Sc. Dict.]
1. a. Foul with snot or nasal mucus.
Freq. in the 17th cent. of the nose.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 112/9 Snotty, purulentus. 1579 Fulke Refut. Rastel 797 [They] vsed them..as the Papists did with y⊇ snottie napkins of Thomas Becket. 1602 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. iii. iii, Amoretto. Her nose is like a beautious maribone. Page. Marry a sweete snotty mistres. 1654 Gataker Disc. Apol. 77 A defluxion from his nittie Hed, into his snottie Nose. 1739 R. Bull tr. Dedekindus' Grobianus 12 Your snotty Fingers..Shall well supply the polish'd Mirror's Place. 1752 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) III. cclxxxii. 296 One day his nose was very snotty, upon which I..wiped it for him. 1867 A. Dawson Rambling Recoll. (1868) 11 There was a knot of bare-legged snotty striplings. |
| prov. 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Morveux, Better a snottie nose then none. 1633 G. Herbert Jacula Prud. Wks. (1862) 328 Better a snotty child than his nose wiped off. |
b. Dirty, mean, paltry, contemptible, etc. Now dial. or slang.
| 1681 Rycaut tr. Gracian's Critick 199 Let the confident Sophister know that he is but a snotty Charlatan. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 193 He babbles out his snotty slanders. 1712 Odes of Horace ii. 27/1 Horace is no such snotty author as to have this putid Stuff put upon him. 1828 T. Wilson Pitman's Pay (1843) 26 Ye snotty dog, Put in yor tram. 1828– in dial. glossaries (Northbld., Cumbld., Yks., Wilts., Som., etc.). 1958 J. C. Herold Mistress to Age (1959) iii. xiii. 263 Albertine had slapped the Crown Prince and called him a snotty brat. 1967 P. Welles Babyhip ii. 36 My brother tried to date her, but she rejected him. She told him she didn't admire Catholics. I think that's pretty snotty. We did go to the same Sunday School. 1974 S. Ellin Stronghold 60 ‘Did it strike you,’ Coco asks at his snotty meanest, ‘that if we came properly prepared, we could have stopped him from taking off?’ |
c. dial. or slang. Angry, curt, short-tempered; pert, saucy, impudent; proud, conceited. Now esp. supercilious, aloof, ‘snooty’.
| 1870– in various dial. glossaries and texts. 1905 Joyce Let. 7 Feb. (1966) II. 80 Are the ‘girls’ ‘snotty’ about Nora? 1916 W. Owen Let. 9 Dec. (1967) 417 A snotty, acid, scot, impatient, irritated wretch. 1926 E. Hemingway Sun also Rises xviii. 218, I won't eat down-stairs with that German head waiter. He was damned snotty. 1936 J. Reith Diary 13 May (1975) ii. 170 This is an insult... I was very snotty and reserved with the prig. 1968 Globe & Mail Mag. (Toronto) 13 Jan. 12/3 Francois is not always snotty, thank heaven. 1978 T. Gifford Glendower Legacy (1979) 39 He..thought for a moment of taking up the possibility of an exchange program with the snotty bastards in Cultural Affairs. |
2. Consisting of snot; mucous; of the nature of, or resembling, snot; viscous, slimy. ? Obs.
| 1656 Ridgley Pract. Physick 88 That snotty white matter is not the fat. 1658 A. Fox Würtz' Surg. ii. xxii. 137 Cooling Ointments—of Oyls and other snotty and greasie things. 1683 Snape Anat. Horse iii. v. (1686) 111 The snotty Excrements of the Brain. c 1720 Gibson Farrier's Guide ii. xxviii. (1738) 100 All that snotty matter comes from thence. |