Snug is warm, small and comfortable in a way that makes you not want to get up. A blanket tucked in on three sides, a cabin with the stove lit while rain hits the window, a cat folded into the airing cupboard.
Snug also means fitting closely with nothing loose about it: a snug jacket, a snug lid, a snug join between two boards. That is where it parts company with tight — a snug fit is close and right, a tight one pinches. The verb is snuggle, and children snuggle down or snuggle up to someone. In a British pub, the snug is the small private room at the front with a door of its own. And there is the rhyme everyone knows first: snug as a bug in a rug.
1adjectivesnugWarm, small and comfortable.
“The cabin was snug once the stove got going.”
synonyms: cosy, comfortable
2adjectivecloseFitting closely, with no space to spare.
“The lid made a snug seal and kept the water out.”
synonyms: close-fitting
3nounprivateA small private room at the front of a British pub.
“They took their pints into the snug and shut the door.”
Snug began in English dialect meaning tight and handsome, and it probably came in from Old Norse snøggr, which goes back to Proto-Germanic *snawwuz, short and quick. Its Scandinavian relatives kept the flattering half of the meaning: Swedish snygg is good-looking, Danish snög is neat.
Proto-Germanic
*snawwuz — short, quick, fast
Old Norse
snøggr
English, today
snug
From dialectal English snug (“tight, handsome”), perhaps from Old Norse snøggr, from Proto-Germanic snawwuz (“short, quick, fast”). Compare Icelandic snöggur (“smooth”), Danish snög (“neat”), Swedish snygg (“handsome, nice-looking”). Compare also English snudge (“to nestle, remain snug and quiet”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA