A snoopy question from Jerome

Dear Word Snoop,

Where does the word "snoop" come from"?

(You ought to know.)

from Jerome

Dear Jerome,

Hmm, after a bit of snooping I have discovered that "snoop" comes from a Dutch word - Dutch is the language people speak in Holland. This Dutch word "snoepen" means to eat something secretly, like stuffing your mouth with green meringues under the desk when nobody is looking. (I speak from personal experience - at least I hope nobody was looking...)

Anyway, when the word moved over to English, it meant doing anything a bit secretly, or even trying to find out other people's secrets. And so there we have it - to snoop!

yours Snoopily,

You-Know-Who