A word of Arabic origin meaning "look!" Was brought back to Britain after the Second World War by returning soldiers who had learnt the word from Arab peddlars of dirty postcards. The peddlars used to keep the postcards hidden inside their coats and would show them to soldiers saying "Shufti, shufti!" - "Look, look!"
A group of kids who just saw their first uncircumcised penis and didn't know what it was so they just called it a Snuffy. Now it is a very popular term.
The English form of shufti (arabic for look / take a look)
Originally RAF but laterArmy also, shufty or shufti became taking a look for possible dangers.
Back home, it was used simply for having a quick look (Am. checking out)
"Whilst researching ships I came across an interesting site and took a quick shufty"