Snirt

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A quiet, stifled burst of laughter that someone tries hard to hold back, often at something inappropriate
2. The short, muffled snigger a person lets out when they fail to keep a laugh in check
3. To laugh in a suppressed, half-hidden way, especially when trying not to be noticed or caught amused

Etymology: The source offers two origins for "snirt" and the more reliable of them is a family of Middle English words for sneering, snorting and snoring. Middle English "snurten" meant "to sneer" or "to snort," a variant of "snorten," and it likely lies behind the modern sense of a suppressed snort of laughter. A related Middle English "snirt" meant "stern" or "gloomy," and Norwegian "snurt" still means "vexed" or "peevish," which hints at a shared root with a sense of disapproval or scorn. The other proposed origin is a blend of "snow" and "dirt," but this does not fit the word's meaning and is best treated as a doubtful suggestion. The earlier origin is also uncertain, since the source admits a second route through Middle English "fnyrten" from Old English "fnǣrettan," but this line of descent has the same difficulty of tying a dialect word to a clear chain of forms.