It's mostly a point of view sort of word. If you were recounting a story, and wanted to explain why you were justifying in, say, smacking someone, you'd say sniggered. As in, "I told them to knock it off, and they sniggered." There might be debate on if they actually were sniggering, but not that sniggering is obviously a slap-worthy action. Snickered is a bit judgmental, but allows for the possibility of non-malicious origin.
Which all may admittedly be a dialect thing from half the population mispronouncing a word and the other half picking it up and using both, but my point is, it's really useful if you want a firm condemnation of the other party with no pretense whatsoever of neutrality.
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Date: 2009-11-13 02:28 am (UTC)Which all may admittedly be a dialect thing from half the population mispronouncing a word and the other half picking it up and using both, but my point is, it's really useful if you want a firm condemnation of the other party with no pretense whatsoever of neutrality.