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scoff

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Etymology and origin of the English word scoff

Pronunciation

  • UK: /skɒf/[1]
  • US: /skɔːf/[1]

scoff1 to mock, jeer

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1330 R. Mannyng's Chronicle
Borrowed from
Old Norse skop via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse skop

Etymology

The word for mockery is inherited from Middle English scof, also skof,[2][3] and is perhaps or probably borrowed from Old Norse skop (“mockery, railing”), also skaup, or a related Scandinavian form.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Early modern Danish had skuf and skof, a jest or mockery, and skuffe, to jest or mock.[3][7][8] The OED is more cautious: it calls the noun obscure in origin, noting that in sense it agrees with the Old Norse word and that a cognate form ending in -f may have been the source.[3] The verb scoffen is formed from the noun.[2][3][5][10] Barnhart takes the Scandinavian words as cognate with Old High German scopf (“mockery; poet”) and Old English scop (“poet”), of unknown origin, and compares scold for the link between poetry and derision.[9] Etymonline traces them perhaps to Proto-Germanic *skub-, from Proto-Indo-European *skeubh- (“to shove”), and Klein also relates them to shove.[4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mockery, or a trifling jest: about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's chronicle, where a kiss is given in bourde & scof.[3][2] The Middle English Dictionary has another quotation of that date, Ernist him þouȝt, & no scof, and puts both under "something trivial or ridiculous".[2] Etymonline dates the noun about 1300 and Barnhart before 1300.[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English noun ranged from a trifle or joke to a jibe, and maken no scof meant to be serious.[2] The verb likewise meant first to jest or make light of something, and then to mock a person;[2][4] Etymonline and Barnhart date that second sense to the mid-15th century,[4][9] though the OED already has "to speak derisively" before 1380.[3] The OED's definition stresses unworthy derision, as of something that deserves reverence.[3] The countable noun, a taunt, appears from 1573; from 1640 a scoff could be the person or thing mocked.[3][8] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as contemptuous ridicule and quoted Shakespeare's with scoffs and scorns.[11] The transitive verb, to deride, is now chiefly American,[3][8] and Collins marks it obsolete.[12] The uncountable noun, mockery, is now rare.[3][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1330 – noun, mockery or a jest.[3][2]
  • before 1380 – verb, to speak derisively, to mock.[3] The Middle English Dictionary dates the same text about 1390, and Barnhart finds the verb probably before 1300 in Kyng Alisaunder.[2][9]
  • 1573 – a derisive jest, a taunt.[3]
  • 1578 – transitive, to deride or ridicule.[3]
  • 1640 – an object of derision.[3]
  • 1862 – to utter in a scoffing manner.[3][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To speak with contempt; to mock, usually with at: The engineers scoffed at the idea of a bridge there.[12][5][3]
  2. To treat with derision; to deride, now chiefly in American use.[5][3][8]

Noun

  1. An expression of scorn; a taunt or gibe.[12][5][3]
  2. An object of derision.[12][5][3]
  3. (rare) Mockery, contemptuous ridicule.[3][8]

Word family

  • scoffer
  • scoffingly

scoff2 to eat greedily

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1798 A. Barnard's journal
Ultimate origin
English scaff

Etymology

The word for eating greedily is apparently a variant from English of dialect scaff, to eat voraciously, which the OED records from 1762 and calls obscure in origin.[3][6][7][5][13] The OED says it passed from dialect into slang and later became associated with the noun meaning food.[3] That noun is borrowed from Afrikaans skof, representing Dutch schoft (“quarter of a day; each of the day's four meals”).[8][3][7][13][14] The Shorter Oxford derives the verb partly from scaff and partly from this noun.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To eat or feed: 1798, in A. Barnard's journal.[3] The transitive sense, to devour, and the noun, food, are first recorded in Swell's Night Guide (1846), which has He scoffed weed; that is, chewed tobacco.[3][15][5] Dictionary.com dates the verb 1855–60.[16]

Semantic evolution

Wright's dialect dictionary records the verb, to eat noisily and greedily, in Yorkshire, East Anglia, Kent, the Isle of Wight and America, with the form scorf in East Anglia and Kent, and Lancashire had scoff for food and scoff-room for a place in a workshop where workers ate.[17] Green's Dictionary of Slang quotes it from British, American and Australian sources in the 19th century.[15] Hoad records a contemporary noun scaff, food, and Weekley says the Scots used scaff earlier in the same sense.[7][14] From 1893, in Kipling, the verb could also mean to seize or plunder.[3][5]

Timeline

  • 1798 – intransitive, to eat or feed.[3]
  • 1846 – transitive, to eat voraciously, devour.[3][15][5]
  • 1846 – noun, food, a meal.[3][15]
  • 1893 – to seize, plunder.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (informal) To eat quickly or greedily; to devour: The children scoffed the whole cake before lunch.[8][5][3]
  2. To eat; to have a meal.[3][8][5]
  3. To seize or plunder.[3][5][18]

Noun

  1. (informal) Food; a meal.[8][5][3][15]

Usage notes

Dictionary.com separates scoff, to voice insolent doubt or derision openly, from jeer, which is louder and coarser, and sneer, which shows ill-natured contempt through expression or tone.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  18. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers

Related etymologies

  • apartheid · also from Afrikaans
  • pap · also from Afrikaans
  • commando · also from Afrikaans
  • trek · also from Afrikaans
  • rotten · also from Old Norse
  • kindle · also from Old Norse
  • awe · also from Old Norse
  • scar · also from Old Norse
Cite this entry

“Scoff.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/scoff. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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