把自己放在別人上面的人
樓梯上站著的那個人：差別只在樓梯是用什麼堆的——錢和出身，還是懂得多。
noun · C2
Someone who believes they are better than people with less money or a lower position in society, and who lets it show in how they treat them. Calling a person this is a criticism.
勢利眼；看不起人的人
核心畫面
One way to hold snob: picture an invisible staircase that someone has built in their head, with themselves standing a step above everyone else and looking down. What the steps are made of can change. If they are made of money, family and address, you get the class snob. If they are made of knowing more about wine or film, you get the taste snob. Objects can be pulled onto the staircase too: some things are bought because owning them puts you on a higher step.
可以想成有人在心裡架了一道看不見的樓梯，而他總是站在上面那一階，往下看別人。這道樓梯用什麼材料堆成，是會變的。用錢、…更多收起
可以想成有人在心裡架了一道看不見的樓梯，而他總是站在上面那一階，往下看別人。這道樓梯用什麼材料堆成，是會變的。用錢、出身、住哪裡堆起來，就是勢利眼。用懂酒、懂電影、懂咖啡堆起來，就是自命內行的人。連東西也會被拉上這道樓梯——有些商品之所以有人買，是因為拿著它就能站高一階。From the word’s history
The evidence packet's Wiktionary entry reports that snob appears in late-18th-century English dialect meaning a cobbler, that its early senses all carried the idea of lower status, and that it was then used for people trying to imitate those of higher wealth or status; the modern sense was popularized by Thackeray's The Book of Snobs (1848). The same entry notes that the often-repeated Latin sine nobilitate story is folk etymology with no connection to the early uses. So the word began at the bottom of the staircase and moved to the person straining to be seen higher up it.
證據包的 Wiktionary 記載：snob 出現於十八世紀末的英國方言，意思是「鞋匠」；早期的用法都帶著「地位較低」的意味，後來才被拿來指那些模仿有錢人或上層身分的人；現代的意思由 Thackeray 的 The Book of Snobs（1848）帶起來。同一條目也指出，常聽到的拉丁文 sine nobilitate（無貴族身分）說法是後人附會，跟早期用法沒有關係。所以這個字是從樓梯的底層出發，最後落在那個急著讓別人看見自己站得比較高的人身上。
Wiktionary entry for snob, kaikki extract supplied in this evidence packet (source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:489521188:23729)
Two branches
東西身上的身分光環
視角從人換到物：不是有人站上那一階，而是一件東西替買它的人站上去。
noun · C2
If a thing has snob value or snob appeal, people want it mainly because owning it makes them look better than other people — not because of what it actually does.
炫耀價值；身分光環