Snorting or making snorting sounds; in a state of snorting, expressing contempt or exertion.
From 'a-' plus 'snort,' where 'snort' comes from Middle English 'snorten,' imitating the sound of exhaling forcefully through the nose. It's an onomatopoetic root related to 'snore.'
Imagine a sentence like 'the horse came asnort into the stable'—the word itself sounds like a snorting horse, and it's this kind of sound-matching English that made older literature so immediately vivid and physical.
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