Scoff vs Sarcasm - What's the difference?
scoff | sarcasm |
Derision; ridicule; a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
* Shakespeare
* 1852 , The Dublin University Magazine (page 66)
An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
* Cowper
To jeer; laugh at with contempt and derision.
* Goldsmith
(British) To eat food quickly.
(South Africa) To eat.
(uncountable) A sharp form of humor, intended to hurt, that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one's intended meaning, often to emphasize how unbelievable or unlikely it sounds if taken literally, thereby illustrating the obvious nature of one's intended meaning.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm , he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.}}
(countable) An act of sarcasm.
As nouns the difference between scoff and sarcasm
is that scoff is derision; ridicule; a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach while sarcasm is a sharp form of humor, intended to hurt, that is marked by mocking with irony, sometimes conveyed in speech with vocal over-emphasis. Insincerely saying something which is the opposite of one's intended meaning, often to emphasize how unbelievable or unlikely it sounds if taken literally, thereby illustrating the obvious nature of one's intended meaning.As a verb scoff
is to jeer; laugh at with contempt and derision.scoff
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) scof/skof, of Scandinavian origin. Compare (etyl) skaup, Danish skuffelse(noun)/skuffe(verb) and Old High German scoph.Noun
(en noun)- With scoffs , and scorns, and contumelious taunts.
- There were sneers, and scoffs , and inuendoes of some; prophecies of failure in a hundred ways
- The scoff of withered age and beardless youth.
Synonyms
* derision, ridicule * See alsoVerb
- Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, / And fools who came to scoff , remained to pray.
