scoff/scarf

[Wilson Gray]

"First shows up in" = "first documented in," right? In the work of
some hypercorrecting-boojie writer, no doubt, in which case, it's
*not* surprising. Had Greg not attempted - in the moment in which he
tried to school me, my impression was that he was merely being your
standard, incredibly-annoying, blacker-than-thou,
don't-you-people-even-know-how-to-speak-your-own-dialect? (I've
literally been asked that! Can you feature that-shit?!) white asshole
- to pull my coat, I would *never* have considered _scoff_ to be
anything other than a blackenization of "scarf." After all, the
semantics seemed clear: using a scarf or some such cloth around the
neck to catch crumbs and drips in the course of eating a meal, a
common practice among the bruz and cuz. Much later, after I was back
on civvy street (strictly literary; never heard in the wild), somehow,
I was made re-aware of Escoffier, which makes even better semantic
sense. So, I decided that Greg had been right, after all.

-Wilson

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 10:27 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: scoff/scarf
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Both _scoff_ and _scarf_ are known in the US.  _Scoff_ used to be (a hundred
> and more years ago) associated with deep-sea sailors. _Scarf_ (perhaps
> surprisingly) first shows up in AAVE and begins to move into WAVE in the
> '60s.
>
> Or so the limited records indicate.
>
> JL
> On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 1:11 AM, Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: scoff/scarf
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I knew and used only "scarf."  OED has scoff/scaff/scarf, giving
>> "scoff" as the dominant variant of "scaff" and "scarf" as an American
>> variant.  I just came across "scoff" in RA Delderfield's _To Serve
>> them all my Days_, p. 87, "to scoff tea and chudleys."  I don't know
>> if that's St. Louis usage, though.
>>
>> Herb
>>
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>
>
> --
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--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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