Recently, on the expanses of the World Wide Web, you can increasingly find the word "scoop". This primarily relates to various online discussions, in which some people call their opponents this designation. What does the word "scoop" really mean? Stay with us and find out!
The original meaning of the word "scoop"
Due to constant political disputes on the Web, many people have simply begun to forget what material item is actually called a scoop. For those who have forgotten or did not know, we remind you: a scoop is a special shovel designed for garbage collection. We figured it out, move on.
Another meaning of the word "scoop"
As mentioned earlier, today the concept of "scoop" has more of a political meaning. Having arisen during the time of perestroika, this term began to be actively used in the countries of the post-Soviet space, as a rule, among people who had a negative attitude towards the USSR and those who shared communist ideology. To be brief, the scoop is both the Soviet Union as a whole and a person who is fanatical about this state. This word is often used in online discussions and real disputes to ridicule your opponent, thus belittling what he loves and respects.
Obviously, the concept of “scoop” was widely used not because of its connection with the scapula with the same name for garbage collection. If we call the inhabitants of the USSR "shoulder blades" or "shoulder blades", then this simply will not make any sense. The word became so popular because it was similar to the name of the state and the name of the citizenship of its inhabitants. In this context, the “owl” part is the first three letters of the word “Soviet”, and the “ok” part is the suffix, giving the name a kind of ridicule. It is common for the suffix “ok” to give words a very frivolous and familiar sound. For example, the word “king” often causes a person to associate with a serious and wise leader who is firm in his decisions and decisions. But it is worth saying the word "king", so immediately all seriousness falls to nothing and in our thoughts we do not represent a courageous and strong leader, but only a kind of miserable semblance of a state ruler. The same can be said about the “scoop”.
The origin of the word "scoop"
Who came up with calling Soviet people scoops? When exactly did this term become actively used? Oddly enough, such a popular concept, firmly entrenched in the vocabulary of many opponents of the Soviet Union, has as many as three theories of origin. Several people claim his authorship at once, and each has its own version of its appearance. Now we will consider them.
Theory number 1: birth in the sandbox
The word "scoop" in the sense in which it is used now, was first used by the famous musician Alexander Gradsky. His version says that this concept arose when he and his friends drank alcohol in a children's sandbox. As comrades, his comrades then used children's molds for sand figures, which the children who had walked here earlier had forgotten. Gradsky himself, in turn, did not have enough tins and therefore had to be content with a scoop.
Theory number 2: the stigma for tourists
"Scoop" is a term that was coined not by one, but by two people at once - culturologists Peter Weil and Alexander Genis. With this word they called tourists from the USSR traveling on the territory of socialist states.
Theory number 3: from the book - to life
The author of the concept of "scoop" is Sergei Epstein - a writer, philosopher and professor of cultural theory and Russian literature. He claims that this word was actively entered into the everyday life of the Russian language after the release of his novel "The Great Owl". At the center of the narrative of this work were characters called "scoops" and "attendants." In the late 80s, when the processes of perestroika, in fact, began to peak, he read out excerpts from his novel on the BBC. Perhaps it was from there that it soon leaked into the territory of the Soviet Union.
Looking back at previous versions, which cannot boast of good and informative argumentation, this theory is currently the most plausible. According to the author, in the context of his story “Great Owl” a scoop is the name of a member of a certain social stratum. To understand which one, it is necessary to turn to the terminology of this work:
- Great Owl - the name of a country inhabited by owls and people who worship them.
- Sovichi (with emphasis on o ) - the name of the inhabitants of this unusual state.
- Sovets (shock s ) - the ruling elite of the Great Owl.
- Sovetsy (with emphasis on e ) - the intelligentsia of the Great Owl, which serves the interests of Sovtsov.
- Co-workers (emphasis on) is a social stratum, which includes only women. Representatives of this gender are also in other public groups, but the Soviets consist only of women.
- And finally, Scoops - the name of the representatives of the working class and proletarians of the owl state. According to the plot, scoops are engaged in the fact that every day they hunt rodents. While catching their victims, they hit, scratched and peeled off all the time, because of which there were practically no feathers on them.
For the first time, an excerpt about the life and life of scoops was read in the spring of 1989. At that time, the BBC listened to a huge number of people from Soviet countries, and it is quite possible that some residents were able to draw parallels between the life of the average Soviet hard worker and the life of the so-called scoop.
In favor of this theory is the fact that for the first time the use of this word in relation to citizens of the USSR was officially noted only in the early 90s, and before that there was no mention of it.
Mikhail Epstein himself is unhappy that real people began to be called a term from his work of art. The writer does not deny that it is most likely that he became its author, but at the same time does not in any way approve of its use. This is largely due to the fact that the scoops from the Great Owl, according to the author, were not negative characters, but, on the contrary, creatures that evoked sympathy and compassion (which can not be said, for example, about the Soviets or Sovets).
How to spell the word "scoop"?
This word is very simple in nature, but some people encounter certain problems when they try to stress it. If you belong to this type of citizen, then remember once and for all: in the word "scoop" the stress always falls on the second syllable, and to be more precise, on the second letter "o"!
Now you know how the word "scoop" is written, what is its original meaning and when it was actively used by residents of the countries of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We hope that this article was very useful for you, and thanks to it you learned a lot of interesting facts.