Snot

​The humble and lowly word snot has hardly changed at all over hundreds, even thousands, of years. Snot has always been snot. It is part of everyone’s life. Snot is not a pretentious or a high-falutin word—it is an ordinary everyday down-to-earth member of the English language family with a long and unassuming history of simply doing its daily work.
 
Snot has its origins in Proto-Germanic snuttan, the source of Old Frisian snotta, Middle Dutch snotte, Middle Low German snute, and Old English gesnot (nasal mucus). Old English also had a verb, ‘to snite’, i.e., to wipe or pick one’s nose. The word snot appears in English in the late 14th century.
 
So, there you go. Just in case anyone asks. Or in case you run out of things to talk about at a dinner party.
 
“Incidentally,” writes Bill Bryson, “the reason your nose runs in chilly weather is the same reason your bathroom windows run with water in chilly weather. In the case of your nose, warm air from your lungs meets cold air coming into the nostrils and condenses, resulting in a drip” (Bryson, 213). So, in this case, just to be clear, it snot snot, it’s condensation.
 
 
Reference: Online Etymological Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/
Bryson, Bill. (2021). The Body: A guide for occupants. Toronto: Anchor Canada.