Snow Job

Welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Lexi. I’m calling from Denver, Colorado.

Well, hello, Lexi. What can we help you with?

I’m calling about a question, actually, from my grandpa who lives in Fremont, Ohio.

And he, every time I see him and then I leave, his wisdom, his parting wisdom for me is, don’t let nobody give you a snow job.

And so I’m wondering where on earth that comes from, if he just made it up, or if it’s been said before, or what it actually means.

So snow job is in the white flakes that come falling down in the winter or high in the mountains. Snow job.

And what does he mean by this? Don’t let nobody give you a snow job. What does that mean?

My interpretation is he means don’t let anyone pull one over on you.

Yeah, that’s right. Don’t take any wooden nickels, right?

When I ask, he doesn’t really give me a straight answer.

Yeah, that’s grandpa’s for you.

Yeah, exactly. Figure it out.

It’s basically a way of saying don’t take any wooden nickels. Don’t be a sucker, right? -huh.

But it’s old. I don’t know how old your grandpa is, but this term has got some legs.

It really came to the fore in English during World War II, although it’s probably a few years older than that.

And at the time, it was so new that it was defined in the Army Times. This is the Army newspaper in 1943.

And I’ll read this paragraph to you. The Army Times said, and snow jobbing is getting off a smooth line, like talking yourself out of a hole or managing to pull five bucks from a buddy or talking the sergeant out of a term of KP duty.

If you made the five buck loan after being told what a great guy you are, then you’ve been snow jobbed.

So it’s when you encounter these people who just have got this art of the flim flam and the flap doodle and the nonsense and the rigmarole, the song and dance.

They hand you a line. They’ve got this pattern. Those are people who do the snow job.

And you fall for it. And you fall for it.

Yeah.

So it’s been around, and it relates to two concepts related to snow.

One is typically, obviously, you snowed in. There’s so much snow you can’t get out of your house or your car or whatever, and you can’t go anywhere.

But there’s also the idea that snow is blinding if the sun is bright and there’s plenty of it, and you just can’t see clearly.

You don’t know where you’re going or what you’re doing.

And it’s also snow blindness and the idea that a blizzard can mean that you can’t see where you’re going.

So there’s all these ideas that snow is an inconvenience and it can cause you not to behave logically.

Okay.

So it blocks your vision either way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It blocks your vision. It stops you from doing what you want to do.

Very cool.

I think you’ll be excited to hear that it’s a World War II term.

Yeah.

I don’t know how old he is, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s turning 80 soon.

Okay.

Oh, cool. So it’s just right there on the edge of maybe having been a part of it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. I bet he has lots of good advice, huh?

Yeah, that’s a big one, though. That’s another job.

Thank you so much for your call, Lexi.

All right, well, thank you so much.

All right, take care.

Take care.

Call us with your language question, 877-929-9673, or send them to us in email.

That address is words@waywordradio.org.