Hypercorrections win out?

[Benjamin Barrett]

Scoff/scarf reminds of boot/book "to run quickly". A Canadian friend
once commented that "book" was odd. I have to agree and it seems
reasonable that the "boot" was first, though I've never heard it except
from that Canadian friend. FWIW BB

Wilson Gray wrote:
> In like manner, Gregory McCurdy, of "How ADJ is that?!" fame, in 1961
> explained to me that my use of "scarf" in the sense of "eat
> (heartily)" was a hypercorrected pronunciation of "scoff," with the
> same meaning, adding that it was probably based upon E-scoff-ier.
>
> At the time, my reaction was, "You ain't talkin' to *me*!" (i.e., "You
> can not be serious!"). Since then, I've come to believe that he was
> right. Ain't *that* a bitch?! :-)
>
> Of course, I used the pronunciation, "scarf," only when talking to
> white people like Greg. Otherwise, I used "scoff," like the rest of
> the brothers. Clearly, though, I had "scarf" and not "scoff" as,
> loosely speaking, my underlying representation, or I would not have
> replaced "scoff" with "scarf."
>
> IAC, just as I've seen only "love _muscle_" in print, so also have I
> seen only "scarf" in print, in the relevant meaning, in contemporary
> writing. Both are, in my experience, quite rare.
>
>

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