Is "snoot" really a word? Where did it originate?

I have seen the word (or term) "snoot" defined as a person who is punctilious about words, grammar, punctuation, pronunciation, and allied linguistic skills. I'm told that snoot is less off-putting than such pejorative terms as grammar nazi, word nerd, syntax snob, or language police. David Foster Wallace called those terms "outright dysphemisms" and defined a snoot as "somebody who knows what dysphemism means and doesn't mind letting you know it." See Wallace, "Tense Present," Harper's, Apr. 2001, at 39.(PDF)

But is snoot a real word or a coined term, and if the latter, how was it coined?

Solution 1:

It's hilarious how many things Wallace gets wrong in that article, precisely because his "snooty" tone makes otherwise minor mistakes that one should probably forgive a target of schadenfreude: Live by the snoot, die by the snoot.

It generally means one who condescends, and comes from a Scots variant of snout meaning "nose", as in "looking down ones nose", via snooty. Wallace's use is certainly a valid use as a hyponym of the general meaning, but he is incorrect in defining it specifically only for that, or for suggesting it is a coinage of his mother's (unless she was around in the 19th Century).