1 definition by mbhw

Snarky

I find so many of these definitions funny. Back in 1974, My father and several Canadian and British colleagues of his made up the word "Snarky". It was a slang term that they coined during a session of interviewing a number of candidates in Toronto for sales and marketing positions in their company and, in particular, one woman had a bitchy, defensive demeanor. They found her quite amusing and tried to think of a word to describe her. She was like a little yappy dog with an edge... snippy... barking... which finally became "snarky". After moving back to the states in '78, this new word was then used by my dad and his associates in many conversations with advertising executives at Grey, Lintas, DDB Needham, SSC&B in New York and Chicago. It started to catch on, but rather slowly, in the advertising community. I continued to use the word to describe certain individuals while in college and then working at some major magazines at Conde Nast and Hachette Filipacchi in the 80's and early 90's. Still, many people had never really heard the word and this was in the New York media. I explained that ultimately, "snarky" was a family sniglet. It was invented to be a nicer way to describe someone that was "bitchy". It really began to catch on when my friends in the ad world and magazine world started to use it with some degree of regularity and finally a number of folks in editorial started using it in their articles or stories. It has since gathered many more synonyms likening it to sarcasm and haughtyness to describe and define it... but the snippy and yappy young woman at the interview in the 70's is the inspiration for the origin and definition of the word SNARKY!

1. Instead of being open and friendly in the interview, Ellen, feeling quite insecure and defensive began to act very SNARKY with the individual asking her questions.

2. She became SNARKY with him when he asked her out. She just thought she was too good for him.

by mbhw October 5, 2006