snuffer n.

"to cut or pinch off the burned part of a candle wick," mid-15c., snoffen, from noun snoffe "burned part of a candle wick" (late 14c.), a word of unknown origin, perhaps related to snuff (v.2).

The meaning "to die" is from 1865; that of "to kill" is from 1932; snuff-film, pornography involving the actual killing of a woman, originally an urban legend, is from 1975.

1844, "a small drink of liquor, a 'nip,' " from a Scottish and northern English survival of an obsolete verb snifter "to sniffle," frequentative of snift "to sniff, snivel" (mid-14c., snifter), ultimately of imitative origin (compare sniff (v.)), but perhaps to English via a Scandinavian source (compare Old Danish snifte, Swedish snyfta).

The meaning "large bulbous stemmed glass for drinking brandy" is attested from 1937. The association of "drinking liquor" with words for "inhaling, snuffling" (such as snort (n.), snootful) is perhaps from snuff-taking and the nasal reaction to it. In Scottish and Northern England dialect snifter (n.) also had various senses, such as "a strong wind," "a bad head-cold," "snuff."