Jan and John Maggs Antiques

Glossary

Snuff, snuffer, snuff out


Two candle snuffers, ca. 1790 and 1820


Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary (New York, 1804) defines the noun snuff as "the wick of a candle remaining after the flame", then, alternately, "perverse resentment, powdered tobacco". The definition continues with the verb form, defined as "to draw in with the breath, crop the candle, snort, sniff in contempt".

Of these, the candlewick and candle cropping are relevant to the current discussion. To verify, we consulted the same source for the definition of crop. We found "to cut off, mow, reap". Since mowing a candle or reaping its charred wicks seem unlikely, the first definition seems to suit our query.

We then jumped nearly two centuries to Random House Webster's College Dictionary (New York, 1991), where we found the following: Snuff  "n. The charred or partly consumed portion of a candlewick" and  "v.t. To cut off or remove the snuff of (candles, tapers, etc.)"

The same source defines the noun snuffers (plural, like scissors, which have a similar form) "n. Utensil to crop candles."

From this one must conclude that to snuff a candle means to trim the wick, enabling it to burn more efficiently, with less smoke. Random House defines snuff out as "to extinguish", supporting our assumption that, if, in the process of snuffing (trimming) a candlewick, the flame should unintentionally go out, it would have been (accidentally) "snuffed out".

If any of this is true, those little cone-shaped brass, silver, or tin things with handles, which are marketed for the sole purpose of smothering candles, should be called "extinguishers", not "snuffers". We offer this argument despite the fact that a Google search of "candle snuffer" yields about 267,000 results, most of which look like the one in the picture below, and are actually extinguishers!

A "snuffers" -- actually an extinguisher.

That's what we think, anyway. Oh, well!

[Note: just before going to press, we located this article in Wikipedia, which appears to support the above. [JAM]


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