Hook-em-Snivy

Glossary of Games

Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Hook-em-Snivy
Game Family	Hook-em-snivy Hook-em-snivy
Location
Regions
Eras	Predecessor
Invented	No
Tags
Description	Our single reference to this game comes from an 1847 Alabama newspaper in its attempt to describe curling to southern readers: “Did you ever play ‘bass ball,’ or ‘goal,’ or ‘hook-em-snivy,’ on the ice?” Its nature is unknown. “Hookum-snivy” is slang for adultery, not that it matters.
Sources	The Alabama Reporter, as reprinted in Spirit of the Times (January 16, 1847), page 559.  Provided by David Block, 2/28/2008.
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Comment	Protoball asked Mister Google about the word "hookum snivy", and he, rather less helpfully and rather more cryptically than usual, said this: "My Quaker grandmother, born in Maryland in 1823, used [the word] in my hearing when she was about seventy years old. She said that it was a barbarism in use among common people and that we must forget it. Edit with form to add a comment
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