What is it?
Why did people use it?
Powdered tobacco with spices in it.
The nicotine gets into the blood faster and easier, with no smoke, no flame, no cigarette butts, and no lung cancer, with the tradeoffs being the possibility of nose cancer (ew) and the guarantee of some nasty boogers.
What do you mean “did use” it? I use it daily, but on the other hand: What Swedes mean by snuff (snus in Swedish) is more on the line with chewing tobacco. It’s damp and you roll it into a ball and place it under your lip. For those who don’t want to dirty themselves there’s also snuff prepacked in what looks like little teabags (squirrel tampons as a friend of mine calls them).
Talking about snuff. I was once frisked by a security guard trainee at Heathrow airport and when he found my snuffbox he turned to his supervisor and asked “What is THIS?” and his supervisor answered “It’s i filthy Swedish habit”. 
Saw it earlier on a daffy duck cartoon.
But I knew of it for a while.
And its enjoyable??
Well, you much more nicotin into your system than by smoking (which makes it a lot harder to stop), but you don’t smell like a chimney and you can use it in no smoking areas.
Plus there are (or were) many more scents of snuff available than there are flavors of cigarettes. The best is/was Dr. Rumney’s Mentholyptus.
'course I gave up that filthy habit. You do end up with a stuffy nose, etc., and you can never be without a hanky. You can also smoke snuff with other smoking materials to flavor the smoke. I’ve heard.
I chew Copenhagen snuff which is a rougher cut tabacco. I have also tried powder snuff while in Germany but didn’t like it very much.
I first tried powdered snuff when I was in Ireland. It’s kind of fun and is a neat novelty to do it here in the states, but I never really got into it. I definately like it better than chew though
I remember when I was about 12, I found a snuff box in my brothers bedroom. It was full of this fine black powder, but I knew you were supposed to sniff it.
I couldn’t see for a good ten minutes. it was a mixture of pain, and wanting to sneeze.
Wonderful stuff.
I’m sorry but snus is absolutely nothing like snuff. At the very best it is a form of chewing tobacco. Snuff doesn’t look the same and is not used the same way. As a Brit I see snus as being untranslatable as there is no equivalent in English, so rather than confusing matters by calling it snuff, it is a lot better to call it snus and then explain what it is if someone asks.
Calling snus snuff is like calling haggis a cornish pastie - just because there is no translation you don’t just take a (very) vaguely similar thing and call it that instead.
Quoting from this site: http://www.snuffs-r-us.com/Snuffs/Snuffs.htm
“Snuff is a form of finely powdered tobacco, which is sniffed directly into the nostrils.”
This doesn’t sound like moist, spiced tobacco stuffed under the upper lip.
I think the English translation would be “smokeless tobacco” or the colloquial “dip”. It’s very prevalent in the south and west US, as in “gimme a pinch of yur dip”. The good ol’ boys can debate the merits of Copenhagen and Skoal with a level of intensity dopers save for abortion and circumcision.
FWIW, it’s also called snuff quite a bit, and there’s no confusion in terms because the inhaled type of snuff is almost unknown in this neck of the woods.
Just to add to the confusion. snus means exactly the same thing as snuff, something you sniff up your nose.
And now for something completely different. Once upon a time I visited Tunisia together with a friend and we decided to take a couch tour around the country. On board the bus the guide handed out all sorts of Tunisian specialties for us to feel and taste and whatever. Among the things passed around was a paper bag with the local snuff, called nefta. We were the first to try it and when we started sneezing the guide said “I hear that someone has tried the local snuff. I must say that I don’t really know what’s in it, but I think it’s a mixture of tobacco and camel dung”. :eek:
I like snuff.
But fortunately I seem to be immune to nicotine addiction, so as with all other types of tobacco products I occasionally indulge, then go for a long period of abstinence.
In the days before matches or cigarette lighters, snuff had the advantage of not needing to be lit.