Dot Wordsworth follows a hissing S with a nasal N.
A musician, Alexander Faris, writes with a list of words beginning with hissing S and nasal N: snarl, snatch, sneak, sneer, sneeze, snicker, snigger, snip, snob, snore, snort, snot, snub, snuff and snout, all of them negative in connotation. He makes the point that they seem to share an onomatopoeic element.
I can see that more than half of them have to do with the nose, an organ we treat with some caution. Although it is regarded as unclean (when it is someone else’s and gets too close to us), at the same time, we make enjoyable use of our own, nosing our wine or scenting the breeze. Your sniff bad; my sniff good.
Even with the initial sn- there are plenty of appetising words: snack, snapdragon (flower or Christmas game), snug, snazzy, if not snafu.
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