Scooby OEDy Doo!!!

July 4, 2016 3:02 AM

The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary is online and on its way to print. With more than 1,000 new words and nearly 2,000 revised or expanded entries, the latest additions include more of the "initialisms" either originated or popularized on the internet like tl;dr and ROFL as well as indicators of cultural direction like Starter Marriage, Goldilocks Economy and something that has been hanging around pop culture for over 45 years, the Scooby Snack.

Interestingly, one of the definitions for Scooby Snack makes it a synonym for Dagwood Sandwich, yet it doesn't note its potential as a treat for both canines and certain humans, often as shown on the originating TV show simultaneously.

posted by oneswellfoop (16 comments total)

Oxford English Dictionary - tl;dr
posted by fairmettle at 3:58 AM on July 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

The full definition of Scooby snack for anyone interested:


Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈskuːbi ˌsnak/ , U.S. /ˈskubi ˌsnæk/
Inflections: Plural Scooby Snacks, Scooby Snax.

Forms: see scooby n. and snack n.2 Also with lower-case initials.

Origin: From a proper name, combined with an English element. Etymons: proper name Scooby , snack n.2

Etymology: < Scooby (in the name Scooby Doo : see scooby n.) + snack n.2

orig. and chiefly U.S.

1. colloq. A snack, esp. given as a reward or inducement; spec. a bite-sized treat or a large multilayered sandwich (likened to those eaten by the cartoon character Scooby Doo: see etymology and scooby n.). Also: food eaten to satisfy a hunger induced by drinking, smoking, or drug use.

1989 Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Advance-Titan 15 Nov. 15 (advt. for Scooby Doo-themed bar) Scooby's. Where every drink is a double... Free Scooby Snacks.

1990 Dauphin (Manitoba) Herald 9 Jan. a6/2 The scooby snacks I had prepared for the road were digested during three lonely meals at the Winnipeg train station.

1992 Salina (Kansas) Jrnl. 1 June n2/5 Hey, I guess if you don't mind holding rotten horse's teeth, then it wouldn't be a problem. I deserved a Scooby snack for that one.

1995 Guardian 15 July a6/4, I am astonished that anyone can discuss unfeasibly large sarnies without mentioning the zenith of this particular art form—the Scooby Snack.

2012 Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado) (Nexis) 3 May (Lifestyle section) There's..a table of healthy, vegetarian munchies. Sugar's not a huge hit here. Neither are drugs, so ditch the Scooby Snacks.


2. slang. In pl. Any of various narcotic or illegal drugs.

1996 ‘Fun Lovin' Criminals’ Scooby Snacks (song lyric) Running around robbing banks All whacked off of Scooby Snacks.

2001 J. Carroll Darkest Hour xiii. 175, I can't have you baby-sitting all whacked up on Scooby Snacks.

2014 Evening News & Tribune (Jeffersonville, Indiana) (Nexis) 31 Mar. (State & Regional News section) The officer reported finding ‘a half bag of Scooby Snack spice and two smoking pipes with residue in each one’.
posted by biffa at 4:11 AM on July 4, 2016 [7 favorites]

Were those tall, Dagwoodian sandwiches ever called Scooby Snacks? Fred called them 'jaw-stretcher specials'.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:18 AM on July 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

First known usage 1989? 20 years after the TV show began and NOBODY ever mentioned the Snack trope when writing about about it? I now realize what I SHOULD have been doing with my life in the late 70s and 80s...
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:21 AM on July 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

...on it's way to "print"?
cb;rp (can't browse; real pages)
posted by Namlit at 7:12 AM on July 4, 2016

and on its way to print

!!!

oh... no, there is still no plan to print an actual paper 4th edition, just the 20-volume 2nd edition and the blindingly compact 3rd edition with its companion magnifying glass. Shame. I am prepared to buy extra bookcases should that happen, but IIRC last time they calculated a new print edition would balloon from 20 volumes to 45, plus be instantly obsolete, so probably never.
posted by Flannery Culp at 7:13 AM on July 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

"Scooby snack" appearing in the OED sounds more like marketer's lobbying than anything having to do with American slang or common language. With rare exceptions noted I doubt anybody has ever used that phrase except when referring to the cartoon.
posted by ardgedee at 9:07 AM on July 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Alton brown refers to 'scooby snacks' in his episodes about filet mignon. He calls the chain meat a 'prime scooby snack' -- the kind of thing cooks save for themselves instead of serving to customers.

In conversation I have heard it specifically refer to Valium on a number of occasions.
posted by poe at 10:33 AM on July 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's definitely a term in marijuana culture, too. For reasons that I think should be obvious.
posted by tobascodagama at 12:03 PM on July 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Scooby snack" appearing in the OED sounds more like marketer's lobbying than anything having to do with American slang or common language.

I don't know what this would be designed to achieve. Can you expand on your point? What is being marketed?
posted by howfar at 1:01 PM on July 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure if this is good form,
This reply strays a bit from the norm.
But, considering the site,
I'll do what is right:
Definitions in limerick form.
posted by xedrik at 9:49 PM on July 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know what this would be designed to achieve. Can you expand on your point? What is being marketed?

The book and institution of the OED are being marketed, and her we are helping market it, by discussing Scooby snacks.

Seems pretty uncontentious to me. Most news is PR for something or other these days, and this is a fairly clear example.
posted by iotic at 10:08 AM on July 5, 2016

"Scooby snack" appearing in the OED sounds more like marketer's lobbying than anything having to do with American slang or common language. With rare exceptions noted I doubt anybody has ever used that phrase except when referring to the cartoon.

Seems pretty uncontentious to me. Most news is PR for something or other these days, and this is a fairly clear example.

Sure, yes. It's marketing. However, it actually also happens to be a well-documented term meeting very conservative criteria for frequency of use, widespread use, and long-term use. The term would go in the dictionary regardless of the marketing department. That's the OED.

Source: I am a dictionary editor and used to work as a lexicographer for Oxford University Press, though not on the OED.
posted by Mo Nickels at 4:07 PM on July 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

I haven't got access to the latest OED, but can anyone confirm if the idea of societal racism is included in any way, under the definition of the term "racism"? Societal racism has been a very well-documented and widespread use of the term "racism" for quite a while. If it is not included in the dictionary definition, might there be some politics involved in that?

I struggle to believe the choices involved in the compilation of the OED are entirely objective and free from bias, or indeed could be.
posted by iotic at 8:12 PM on July 5, 2016

Struggle away, but don't expect anybody to come to bat for an idea that nobody here actually advanced in the first place.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:08 AM on July 6, 2016

My point is that dictionaries are not purely run on the basis of detachment and rationality, and thus the idea that a term might be included largely as part of the yearly marketing drive is not completely off the wall.
posted by iotic at 8:57 AM on July 6, 2016 [1 favorite]