I like reading. I've started reading books by Charles Dickens and there are references in it to characters "taking a pinch of snuff" and then sneezing. What is "snuff"?
Answer
Analysis
It took a few minutes to wade through google searches that only brought up more modern readings of the word "snuff" (as is related to death and killing things) to get to the meaning used by Dickens and other authors of that era.
According to www.geist.com and the article they did on snuff, it was pulverized (i.e. ground) tobacco leaves that people would inhale. The basic idea was that it was a way to have tobacco and get the mild buzz from it (the nicotine being absorbed by the mucous membranes of the nose) and also the (apparently) pleasant odour of it. It was seen as being better than smoking and chewing because snuff required nothing further to enjoy it (as opposed to say smoking, which requires either papers to make cigarettes or a pipe) and wasn't as messy.
The Geist article has much more about its history, use, and references in literature.
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