"scoop"

Posted by Shae on April 04, 2005

In Reply to: "Scoop" posted by al on April 03, 2005

: where did the word scoop come to mean an exclusive story by one newspaper

Etymology on-line (www.etymonline.com) has:

scoop
c.1330, "utensil for bailing out" (n.), also (v.) "to bail out;" from M.Du. schope "bucket for bailing water," from W.Gmc. *skopo (cf. M.L.G. schope "ladle"), from P.Gmc. *skop-, from PIE *(s)kep- "to cut, to scrape, to hack." Also from Low Ger. scheppen (v.) "to draw water," from P.Gmc. *skuppon, from PIE root *skub- (cf. O.E. sceofl "shovel," O.S. skufla; see shove). The journalistic sense of "news published before a rival" is first recorded 1874, Amer.Eng., from earlier commercial slang sense of "appropriate so as to exclude competitors" (c.1850).