snob

American  

[snob] / snɒb /

noun

1. a person who imitates, cultivates, or slavishly admires social superiors and is condescending or overbearing to others.

2. a person who claims to be an expert or connoisseur in a given field and is condescending toward or disdainful of those who hold other opinions or have different tastes regarding this field.

   a musical snob.

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snob British  

/ snɒb /

noun

1. 1. a person who strives to associate with those of higher social status and who behaves condescendingly to others Compare inverted snob

   2. ( as modifier )

      snob appeal

2. a person having similar pretensions with regard to his tastes, etc

   an intellectual snob

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Other Word Forms

• antisnob
  noun
• snobbery
  noun
• snobbishness
  noun
• snobbish
  adjective
• snobby
  adjective
• snobbishly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of snob

First recorded in 1775–85; origin uncertain; first used as a nickname for “a cobbler or cobbler's apprentice,” hence “a townsman, someone of low class or lacking good breeding, commoner,” hence ”someone who imitates persons of higher rank”

Explanation

If your best friend tells you that you've become a snob, he means that you've become condescending and you like to think you're better than everyone else. Of course maybe he's a snob for looking down on your behavior — how annoying! Snob has a funny history. It used be slang for "shoemaker," then "common person," and then came to mean "someone who doesn't have a degree from a fancy university," and then it started to mean "people who liked to pretend they have degrees and are generally fancy and look down on common people like shoemakers." Nowadays, snob isn't only for people with false pretentions. Rich people who despise less tasteful folks are snobs, too.

Example Sentences

A development for wealthy out-of-towners with second homes is known as Snob Hollow.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025

Peters’s chapters about “The Snob Factor” and “The Price of Glamour” are devastating, and no less powerful for his own mild status obsession and name-dropping.

From Washington Post • May 4, 2017

“The regime wants to remove Pavlensky,” read the headline of an opinion piece on the website of Snob magazine.

From The Guardian • Jan. 20, 2017

From: How Bill Clinton Saved Obama From Looking Like a Snob In contemplating Obama's challenges tonight, I can't help but think back to the way Bill Clinton solved one of them for him.

From Slate • Sep. 7, 2012

"Catherine," "The Great Hoggarty Diamond," "Barry Lyndon," and several volumes of travel had failed to gain much attention before the "Snob Papers," issued in "Punch" in 1846, brought him fame.

From Harvard Classics Volume 28 Essays English and American by Eliot, Charles William