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A friend asked in a group chat who uses "scarf" and who uses "snarf". Some of us had only heard one or the other.

I was reminded of the American English dialect heat maps (e.g., LINK), and I was curious if there were any resources to find out if these words were regional.

Thanks!

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    In Britain we say "scoff", which is possibly related.
    – WS2
    Commented May 17, 2020 at 20:01
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    I hear both, here in the US upper Midwest, but "scarf" is probably more common, by a factor of 4 or so. And I suspect they are used with slightly different meanings.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 17, 2020 at 20:02
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    @WS2 - Well, in the US we scoff at Britishisms.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 17, 2020 at 20:02
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    @HotLicks Scoff, to speak ridicule (we can all do that), possibly comes from the old high German scoph. Scoff, both noun and verb, which have to do with voracious eating possibly originates from scaff, out of South Africa (OED).
    – WS2
    Commented May 17, 2020 at 20:58
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    Note that "scarf" and "snarf" suggest two somewhat different sounds being made during the eating. You might scarf down a sandwich but snarf down ice cream.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented May 18, 2020 at 14:41

2 Answers 2

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"Scarf" is much more common per Ngram Viewer, and "snarf" may have been derived from "scarf," according to Wiktionary. It seems like "snarf" was particularly popular around 2010 but first took off in the 70s, again per Ngram Viewer.

Based on the linked charts, the etymology does not appear to have any connection to the ThunderCats character (see Wikipedia) but that may be responsible for its continued use.

Curiously, it appears in the 1981 Jargon File, an old glossary used by programmers, with the meaning:

SNARF v. To grab, esp. a large document or file for the purpose of using it either with or without the author's permission. See BLT. Variant: SNARF (IT) DOWN. (At MIT on ITS, DDT has a command called :SNARF which grabs a job from another (inferior) DDT.)

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  • We've long had a local sandwich chain around here named Snarf’s. It was certainly a normal term amongst programmers in the 80s.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 3:04
  • The OED dates the verb from the 1950s, per this paywalled link.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Jan 10, 2023 at 4:02
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I have heard the phrase 'scarf down', when a person is in a hurry to eat.
Example: Fred looks down at Jim, who is eating a sandwich. Time is running out and they are about to miss their bus. Fred looks at Jim. "Hurry up. Scarf that on down or we'll miss the bus."

Or, telling a friend you are going to eat quickly: "I'll scarf this down in no time." This type of casual speech would only be used between friends or siblings.

I have never heard the word 'snarf'.

Hope this helps.

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