Mostly the word was used in English in the 17th century to refer to a knife or a kind of knife-fighting with cuts and thrusts, a sport Dryden in 1695 calls "brutal." The word comes from the Dutch.

Originally, the sword that reputedly -- or apocryphally -- fell from Gilbert's study wall and gave him the idea for the Japanese setting of the operetta was carried in performances as Ko-Ko's executioner's sword. The original Mikado snickersnee, then, was not a snickersnee but it was that more-or-less authentic ceremonial Japanese sword. According to Martyn Green, this practice changed in Charles Ricketts' 1926 restaging and redesign of The Mikado, in which the traditional Japanese ceremonial sword was "replaced by a huge ax" (Green 410). I think people believe Gilbert's authority in his use of the word here and assume that snickersnee actually means the kind of weapon carried in the operetta, whatever it is. (See, for example, a recent article in The Smithsonian [? or Sight and Sound?] calling a traditional Japanese sword carried in a performance a snickersnee.)

This discussion is based on the definition of the word snickersnee in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which requires a little explanation.

To Act I or Act II of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado.

To the homepage of this Mikado website.

Suggestions, contributions, criticisms, questions? Email Sharon Cogdill.