What the heck is this new meaning for "Snap"?

Factual Questions
1

As further evidence of my rapidly advancing decrepitude, I seem to have missed the latest memo cocerning “snap”. Apparently, this word is now being either to a) indicate that someone has been angered by someone else’s behavior or b) as a sort of all-purpose expletive, like a milder form of the exclamation “shit”. Seems I’ve been seeing it everywhere lately, from magazine covers to the comic strip Get Fuzzy to the Dope itself (the poster now known as AwSnappity).

So, anyone, is my understanding of the new usage correct, and better yet, how and/or where did it get started?

2

The way I’ve heard it, if someone gets in a good verbal jab or insult–preferably something off-the-cuff and witty, rather than just a “Fuck you”–the appropriate response would be “Oh, SNAP!” This signifies “You just got tried/dissed/served!”, like a verbal slap in the face, and implies that the recipient had better say something back in retaliation. The person who says “Oh, SNAP!” may be an instigator, or may just be calling attention to a particularly memorable “dis.”

3

I’ve heard it used as an exclamation of joy or excitement.

You’re walking down the street and you see something in a store window that you want. “Aw, snap!” you exclaim, and then run into the store.

Or, you see a couple of people about to fight. “Aw, snap!” might be what you would say while you were rushing to see it.

But are people still saying this, though? We used to say it in high school (about ten years ago) but that was kind of a long time ago.

4

I wonder if it’s in any way related to the “two snaps up” of In Living Color’s “Men on Film” fame?

5

Here’s another vote for “they’re still using this?” – and I can date it back to 1991/1992, when M.C. Hammer and Vanilla Ice were big. I remember “awwwww, snap!” being uttered by Don Cherry, who wore baggy pants (but French-rolled them) and had the best box-fade I’ve ever seen. In 1991, the top had a sideways slope a la Bobby Brown or Kid N Play.

It still means the same thing.

6

When was Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend” a… hit? Because I distinctly remember one of the last lines being “Aw, SNAP!” when he found his girl tongue-kissing a guy in her dorm room.

:: 2 snaps up in a Z formation ::

7

Well, that explains why a fellow player got very narky with me in Yahoo literati ( a Scrabble variant). You see in the UK Snap is a children’s card game. The pack is dealt out between the players and they take turns to lay a card down til they get a pair – two jacks, tens etc. Then the first player to shout “Snap!” wins. So, in the UK “Snap” is what you say to any two of a kind – if two people turn up in the same outfit or say the same phrase at the same time. Hence when I played the same word in Literati as my opponent had just laid down I said “Snap!” and was astonished when WWIII broke out. I’ll be careful of this one in future.

8

Yep!
>So I came to her room and opened the door
>Oh, snap! guess what I saw?
>A fella tongue-kissin’ my girl in the mouth,
>I was so in shock my heart went down south

From 1990, I think. The first tape I ever bought on my own.

And I always though the last lady friend he mentions was Janet. Doesn’t rhyme with ‘fact’, though!

And I always loved this rhyme. This mundane little familiarity really gives authenticity to the story:
>I went to a gate to ask where was her dorm
>This guy made me fill out a visitor’s form

9

My only knowledge of its usage is from a street-hood buddy of mine. He uses

“Aw, snaps!”

when shown something cool, new, or exciting.

10

I’ve always understood this to be a really ancient semi-swear word, Like something someone’s grandma would have said in the '40s. A more feminine version of ‘tarnation!’, if you will, with similar implications for fuddy-duddyness.

11

I thought it was a way of voicing “that’s right, damn it!” or whatever other sentiment might be expressed by snapping one’s fingers. I associate it with “Mork and Mindy” though I might be confusing it with “heavy sigh”. In any case, I’m sure I heard it at least twenty-five years ago but it’s possible I always misunderstood and I never felt like using it myself.

12

So maybe Biz Markie heard it from his Grandmother and used it in a song. :confused:

I had a friend that used it to replace “shit” around 1990-91 as well. He was sort of a rapper wanna-be.

13

It’s been around since at least 1990!?! Now I feel about as hip as first trumpet in the Salvation Army Band. Well, I was living outside the US until '97 or so, so I missed when it came into vogue. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Anyway, thanks for the comments.

14

The word “snap” can be summarized as either “and that’s the last word!” or “what a humiliation!” It is a verbalization of an actual finger snap. It can be either a taunt directed toward someone else, or a lamentation of one’s own situation. Lately I’ve been hearing the phrase “it’s like that” gaining popularity as a fairly close replacement.

The oldest use of “oh snap” that I can remember is the 1985 rap tune “No Show” by the now-defunct Symbolic 3. I can’t remember the precise lyrics and couldn’t find them online, but they were giving Doug the works about his old, tight shoes:

“Oh snap, he’s got a hole that I can see right through, and/
he needs to go and buy some Elmer’s glue.
Sorry Dougie,
Sorry Dougie,
Sorry but your shoes are through.”

To jog your memory, this was a parody of Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh’s song “The Show,” which contained the popular refrain: “6 minutes… 6 minutes… 6 minutes Doug E. Fresh you’re on…”