snug [L16th] The first use of snug was as a sailors’ term, probably from German or Dutch, that meant ‘shipshape, properly prepared for bad weather’. A small, comfortable room in a pub was known as a snug from the 1830s, but the original name was a snuggery [E19th]. There used to be a verb snug that meant ‘to lie or nestle closely’, and from this we get snuggle [L17th].