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Carpal Tunnel
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"The fire had not then burnt unusually low, nor was the snuff of the candle very long; the candle, however, had been blown out."
I never heard the charred part of the candle wick called the "snuff" before.
snuff
adj : snuff colored; grayish to yellowish brown [syn: snuff-brown,
mummy-brown, chukker-brown]
n 1: finely powdered tobacco for sniffing up the nose
2: a charred candlewick
3: sensing an odor by inhaling through the nose [syn: sniff]
v : sniff or smell inquiringly [syn: snuffle]
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Snuff \Snuff\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Snuffed; p. pr. & vb. n.
Snuffing.] [OE. snuffen. See Snuff of a candle Snuff to
sniff.]
To crop the snuff of, as a candle; to take off the end of the
snuff of.
To snuff out, to extinguish by snuffing.
Snuff \Snuff\, v. t.[Akin to D. snuffen, G. schnupfen,
schnuppen, to snuff, schnupfen a cold in the head, schnuppen
to snuff (air), also, to snuff (a candle). Cf. Sniff,
Snout, Snub, v. i.]
1. To draw in, or to inhale, forcibly through the nose; to
sniff.
He snuffs the wind, his heels the sand excite.
--Dryden.
2. To perceive by the nose; to scent; to smell.
Snuff \Snuff\, n. [Cf. G. schnuppe candle snuff, schnuppen to
snuff a candle (see Snuff, v. t., to snuff a candle), or
cf. Snub, v. t.]
The part of a candle wick charred by the flame, whether
burning or not.
If the burning snuff happens to get out of the
snuffers, you have a chance that it may fall into a
dish of soup. --Swift.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Speaking of candle wicks and candle snuffs, if the candle snuff gets long enough to extend out of the flame sidewise, it begins to smoke very badly. The last candles I used during one of the hurricanes back in the fifties had a clever arrangement of the wick that kept it from getting long. It would not stay straight, but curve so that the end stayed in the hottest part of the flame, and the carbon would burn and keep the snuff short. The wick itself had had a strand removed, which somehow tended to produce the curvature that kept it from getting long, because the forces on the wick were unbalanced. But I could never figure out at what point in manufacture the strand was removed, to make the tension on the whole unbalanced
Think about it, and see if you can figure out how to make it work.
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Carpal Tunnel
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A phrase just popped into my mind. "Up to snuff" meaning satisfactory. Only origin I can think of for it is possible
corruption of "it's enough". Comments invited.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think this may be a stretch, Bill; the more likely meaning seems to me to be based on a process of synecdoche, where a socially prestigious material becomes an eponym for 'high quality'. Does that cut the mustard for you? http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/meanings/107200.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thanks Dr. Bill, I'd often wondered what exactly was supposed to be going on in this extract from Northanger Abbey: The dimness of the light her candle emitted made her turn to it with alarm; but there was no danger of its sudden extinction; it had yet some hours to burn; and that she might not have any greater difficulty in distinguishing the writing than what its ancient date might occasion, she hastily snuffed it. Alas! It was snuffed and extinguished in one. Northanger Abbey, Chapter 21. http://www.pemberley.com/etext/NA/chapter21.htmBingley
Bingley
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Here's what Quinion had to say about "up to snuff".
UP TO SNUFF
From Jane Rawoof: “What is the origin of the phrase up to snuff?”
The snuff here is tobacco: nothing to do with the verb meaning to extinguish. Several colloquial phrases are recorded that used the word snuff, most of which date from the early part of the nineteenth century in Britain, when snuff-taking was still common, but less fashionable than it had been fifty years before.
The first meaning of up to snuff was somebody who was sharp, not easily fooled. This may have come from the idea of snuff being itself a sharp preparation, but perhaps because it was mainly taken by men of adult years and some affluence (it was expensive) who would be able to appreciate the quality of snuff and distinguish between examples of different value. The evidence isn’t there to be sure about its exact origin, though an early form of the phrase was up to snuff and a pinch above it, which at least confirms it did indeed relate to tobacco.
Whatever its origin, the meaning of the phrase shifted slightly after a while to imply somebody who was efficient and capable; later still it often meant that something was up to standard, or of the required quality. It was in this sense very similar to another expression of the time, up to scratch. This comes from prize-fighting, in which the scratch was the line across the floor that a contestant had to touch with his toe to indicate he was ready to fight.
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