scoff/scarf

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/30/07, Laurence Urdang <urdang at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Since the first quote in the OED for scoff is the same year when he was born, it is
> rather unlikely (but, for some, not impossible) that it was formed on the name of
> Auguste Escoffier.
>   I first encountered it in the UK, in the 1970s.  Later, when I encountered scarf
> among native speakers in the New York area, it occurred to me that it was a
> resurrection (hypercorrection, if you prefer) of the r-less form scoff by those speakers
> who want listeners to know that they are aware there is an "r" in the spelling of a word,
> which, of course, there wasn't---at least if one compares the history of scoff and scarf
> in the OED.
>   I wanted to check it in the Century, but I couldn't get it on line and was too lazy to pick
> up the volume in the next room.
>   Also, the meaning has always seemed to me closer to 'gorge oneself; eat voraciously'
> than to 'eat heartily.'

I was able to access the Century online without a problem:
http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/

Under "scoff, v." one sense is "To eat hastily; devour [Naut. slang]".
The Supplement also shows a sense of the noun, "Food; 'grub.' [Slang]"
(quoting Kipling). Nothing relevant for "scarf".

I first encountered the gluttonous sense of "scarf" in my childhood,
reading a collection of Peanuts comic strips. In one strip, Snoopy
observes that "one of the great joys in life is scarfing down junk
food." I can't find a dating for that strip (though the saying turns
up on Peanuts merchandise now) -- I'd guess it was early to mid-'70s.


--Ben Zimmer

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