Maybe it derived from a "knot" word instead. Nautical terms seem to be rife with elisions.
Also, OED seems to suggest that it's a variant of snorter (second definition). And OED's second definition of snort as a noun is nautical slang for snorkel. So maybe. . . .
Why they'd think of this term in particular for a type of rope... *thinks*
*checks OED for earliest usage of snot in the sense we suspect*
Here it is:
c1425 Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 636 Hic polipus, snotte.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 462/1 Snothe, fylthe of the nose (S. snotte).
1530 PALSGR. 272/1 Snotte of the nose, rovpye.
1561 T. NORTON Calvin's Inst. IV. 81 That no man should draw snott oute at hys nosethrilles.
1594 NASHE Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 154 His snot and spittle a hundred tymes he hath put ouer to hys Apothecarie for snowe water.
(and so forth)
Mystery unsolved. It isn't like poop deck, because poop didn't mean what it means now until the late 18th century. But snot... Maybe it has to do with the rope's appearance once it's "seized to the side of the mast."
"... a short ropespliced together at the ends, and served with spun-yarn, or covered with hide: it is seized to the size of the mast, leaving a bight to fit the lower end of the sprit, which it confines to the mast." —Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 487
It certainly is. And nothing makes a madeupical term better than its sheer grossout factor.
Cool. I like my madeupical etymology more, but perhaps that's just because it's far, far grosser. :)
Maybe it derived from a "knot" word instead. Nautical terms seem to be rife with elisions.
Also, OED seems to suggest that it's a variant of snorter (second definition). And OED's second definition of snort as a noun is nautical slang for snorkel. So maybe. . . .
Why they'd think of this term in particular for a type of rope... *thinks*
*checks OED for earliest usage of snot in the sense we suspect*
Here it is:
c1425 Eng. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 636 Hic polipus, snotte.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 462/1 Snothe, fylthe of the nose (S. snotte).
1530 PALSGR. 272/1 Snotte of the nose, rovpye.
1561 T. NORTON Calvin's Inst. IV. 81 That no man should draw snott oute at hys nosethrilles.
1594 NASHE Unfort. Trav. Wks. (Grosart) V. 154 His snot and spittle a hundred tymes he hath put ouer to hys Apothecarie for snowe water.
(and so forth)
Mystery unsolved. It isn't like poop deck, because poop didn't mean what it means now until the late 18th century. But snot... Maybe it has to do with the rope's appearance once it's "seized to the side of the mast."
;-)
Snotter? I don't even .. oh, never mind.
Snotter best work, but snotter her worst either.
Spitter if it were.
Snotter proper word.
"... a short rope spliced together at the ends, and served with spun-yarn, or covered with hide: it is seized to the size of the mast, leaving a bight to fit the lower end of the sprit, which it confines to the mast."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 487