Don’t be such a snood.
No, no—that’s not it.
Guess again.
Not a clue?
What if I said …
hairdo?
Now I’ve really stumped you!
A snood (which rhymes with food) is:
- the distinctive headband formerly worn by young unmarried women in Scotland and northern England.
- a netlike hat or part of a hat or fabric that holds or covers the back of a woman’s hair
It can also be used as a verb that means “to bind or confine the hair with a snood.”
Ahhh …
Painting by Adolph Menzel (1815–1905) via Wikimedia Commons
The traditional Scottish snood was a narrow circlet or ribbon fastened around the head as a sign of chastity. Victorian era hairnets worn for decoration were also called snoods, and during World War II, snoods became popular in factories, where they were worn to keep hair from being caught in machinery.
Photo courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum via Wikimedia Commons
But there is one last definition that is sure to tickle your gizzard. Actually two more definitions, one of them a family tradition of ours. For some reason—to this day, we have no idea why—but the nickname my daughter and son gave each other was SNOODS. And why they gave each other the same nickname, we have no idea. Even into their teen years, it was Snoods this and Snoods that. Snoodles. Snooders. One summer, I encouraged the two of them to drive across the country to Cape Cod to visit their grandparents. (What fun for a 22-year-old and her brother, age 18, right?!) In the back window of their Subaru was a sign they made announcing to the world “Snoods’s Cross-Country Road Trip.”
A snood may also refer to the pendulous skin over the …
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