E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Snickersnee.
A large clasp-knife, or combat with clasp-knives. (“Snick,” Icelandic snikka, to clip; verb, snitte.
to cut. “Snee” is the Dutch snee, an edge; snijden, to cut.) Thackeray, in his Little Billee, uses the term “snickersnee.”
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“One man being busy in lighting his pipe, and another in sharpening his snickersnee.”—Irving: Bracebridge Hall, p. 462.
