scoff/scarf

[Jonathan Lighter]

Wilson, you're undoubtedly right about the boojie business.  But there's no
doubt either that people today are running around saying "scarf" with an R
and liking it.

I think I once filed away a "scorf," too, but I'm just too lazy to find out.

JL

On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: scoff/scarf
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "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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> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
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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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