Forms: 1 snod, 6– (Sc. and north.) snude (9 sneud), 7– snood (9 snoud); north. 8 snead, 9 sneiad; Sc. 9 snid, sneed, etc. [OE. snód, of obscure origin.]
1. A fillet, band, or ribbon, for confining the hair; latterly, in Scotland (and the north of England), the distinctive hair-band worn by young unmarried women.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 137. Cappa, snod.
a. 1000. in Wr.-Wülcker, 204. Cinthium, mitra, snod.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 28. Þa lærde hi sum iudeisc man, þæt heo name ænne wernæʓel … and becnytte to anum hringe mid hire snode.
c. 1150. in Wr.-Wülcker, 540. Uitta, snod.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 377. Ȝone ma nocht saif thair bodie with ane snude.
1643. Orkney Witch Trial, in Abbotsford Club Misc., I. 177. Ȝe said into hir that ȝe haid Vrsulla Alexanderis snood, quhilk ȝe haid keipit since ȝe put hir in hir winding sheit.
1677. Nicholson, in Trans. R. Soc. Lit. (1870), IX. 319. Snude, a fillet, or hair lace.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. iv. The rashes green … Of which … For thee I plet the flow’ry belt and snood.
1771. Pennant, Tour in Scotl. (1794), 213. The single women wear only a ribband round their head, which they call a snood.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. v. No hunter’s hand her snood untied, Yet ne’er again to braid her hair The virgin snood did Alice wear.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II. Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberie (1905), 322. While her tresses are bound with a snood.
1888. R. Buchanan, Heir of Linne, vii. 54. Her hair was bound up in a simple snood.
† b. ? A skein. Obs.
1425. in Kennett, Par. Antiq. (1695), Gloss. s.v. Snodde, In viii snoden de Pakthred.
2. a. In sea-fishing: One of a number of short lines, each carrying a baited hook, attached at regular distances along the main line.
c. 1682. J. Collins, Salt & Fishery, 112. To each of these are fastned 20 Snoods, alias Nossels, which are small Lines, with Hooks and Baits at them.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool. (1776), III. 205. The hooks are fastened to the lines upon sneads of twisted horse hair 27 inches in length.
1793. Statist. Acc. Scotl., VII. 204. The quantity of line … contains … 720 hooks,… one yard distant from each other, on snoods of horse hair.
1848. Chambers’s Information for People, I. 699. These are long lines, with hooks fastened at regular distances … by shorter and smaller cords called snoods.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 7. Simple Machine, for making Norsels or Snoods of any length.
b. Angling. A hair or catgut line attaching the hook to the rod line.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Snood. That part of an angler’s line to which the hook is affixed.
1832. W. H. Maxwell, Wild Sp. West, I. 263. I … lost time, hooks, and snouds.
1873. W. Graham, in Harp of Perthshire (1893), 149. My licht thrown snood scarce touched the flood When doun it flew like lichtnin’.
