Snark is certainly, not probably, a blend of snake and shark, because Lewis Carroll explained his coinage.
I've written about snark in the past, and I found this curious. The Century Dictionary gives the snake/shark derivation. It's repeated in other places too. But as far as I know, the only real evidence we have is the fact that Beatrice Hatch wrote that Carroll told her that it was a portmanteau of snail and shark. Where and when did Carroll explain that he coined the word from snake and shark?
6 comments:
I have never read any other reference to the snake/snail theory than the one you mentioned, which Gardner identifies as coming from the Sttrand Magazine in April, 1898.
I've mangled this theory in an earlier mangling,http://justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.com/2008/11/fit-fourth-page-26-panel-1-joy-of.html">here … and I don't think much of it. Doug Howick, the eminent Australian Snarkophile, had long ago uncovered an earlier usage as the caption for an engraving of a tattooed Maori warrior, described as being "all snark'd", available here … dated 1773. Proof positive, perhaps?
Dreadfully sorry but the wrong link for the mangling mentioned above, the correct one is here …
I don't think much of the snail/shark theory either.
But why snake? where did the snake come from?
Perhaps the usual anti-snake sentiments are at work here, postlapsarian stress syndrome combined with Judeo-Christian antichthonic hysteria …
besides it's the most boring etymological theory of them all and hence, most implausible. QED
What we know is that Carroll did not want the Snark to be depicted as a big fish. But (as the Barrister found out) it can sneak into your dreams.
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