History is a Bitch - a weblog by Jeanne Kalogridis

Snowclone.

What happens on Wikipedia doesn't stay on Wikipedia.

At least, not until I write a novel set after the year 1694, when "snicker" was first recorded, perhaps coming from the Dutch snikken, "to gasp, sob."

No one sniggered (a variant) until 1706.

Word origin is one of the thousand little thorns that prick the writer of historical novels. I instinctively avoid words that feel too modern -- for example, none of my characters can be mesmerized, since the word comes from Franz Anton Mesmer, who developed the theory of animal magnetism and hypnosis at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

That's why the the Online Etymology Dictionary is one of my closest friends. If you have an interest in word midwifery, check it out.