snore

From Middle English snoren, fnoren (“to snore loudly; snort”), from Middle English snore, *fnore (“snore; snort”, noun), from Old English fnora (“snort; sneezing”), from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô, from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe; snort; sneeze”). Compare also Proto-West Germanic *snarkōn, Middle Low German snorren (“to drone”), Dutch snorren (“to hum, purr”).

The change fn → sn in this word is regular, seen also in sneeze, from Middle English fnesen (see sneeze for more).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /snɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /snɔɹ/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /sno(ː)ɹ/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /snoə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)

snore (third-person singular simple present snores, present participle snoring, simple past and past participle snored)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To breathe during sleep with harsh, snorting noises caused by vibration of the soft palate.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], pages 8-9:

     While you here do ſnoaring lie, / Open-ey'd Conſpiracie / His time doth take: / If of Life you keepe a care, / Shake off ſlumber, and beware. / Awake, awake.

   • 1709, Alexander Pope, “January and May; or, The Merchant’s Tale, from Chaucer”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 223:

     The lumpiſh husband ſnoar'd avvay the night, / Till coughs avvak'd him near the morning light.

• saw wood

• snorer
• snoring rail

snore (plural snores)

1. The act of snoring, and the noise produced.
2. (informal) An extremely boring person or event.

   Synonyms: snoozefest, snore-fest

• snore-fest

• noser, renos, oners, Ernos, Rosen, Ornes, seron, Ensor, Norse, neros, senor, señor, rosen, Roens, Neros, Rones

snore

1. Alternative form of snoren

From Old English fnora, from Proto-Germanic *fnuzô.

• *fnore

• IPA^(key): /ˈsnɔːr(ə)/

snore

1. (hapax) snorting

• snoren

• English: snore
• Scots: snore

• “snōre, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.