"We are the thylacines of snerk."

[sovay]

A post without any redeeming social value whatsoever:

Does anybody know the origins of the word "snerk"? I am watching it appear in conversations across the internet either through multiple parallel evolution or a remarkable osmosis, and I am curious.

Comments

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I first came upon it in my fannish circles... I don't even know how long ago now. I don't know the exact origin or meaning, but I took it to mean a smirk, with a little bit of snark thrown in. It's meant to convey humour.

But, yeah. No clue where it came from originally.

[sovay]

I think I always assumed it had an onomatopoeic origin: at least to me, it sounds like an amused noise midway between a smile and a laugh, sort of a half-snicker. And I had thought it was used only by one particular group of friends that I knew, and the people who'd caught it from me. (The Contagious Snerk. Frequents message boards and livejournals.) Now I find it in use by a completely different group of people, and I'm trying to figure out where it started. This may be an exercise in futility; but I'm running a fever and too unfocused to do much of any serious work, so instead I am hunting the snerk.