“He had a world scoop that had to be developed”, we read in 1970 in
The Algerian War
by Yves Courrière who takes great care to put the scoop in quotation marks.
Quotation marks which proved then that the word was not yet really integrated into the vocabulary of the French language.
It was indeed attested only since 1957. “Scoop” was to quickly become fashionable and to make forget alas some beautiful French formulas not however to let die.
And if..., to better listen to this word which undoubtedly sounds English, "scoop" benefited from some acquaintances other than Anglo-Saxon?
Scoop and scope...
"Scoop.
Important information disseminated by a media which has the scoop or exclusivity" and, by extension, "news that causes a sensation" is precisely and usefully recalled in the latest edition of the Dictionary of the French Academy, free on the internet, like all the other editions since the first, published in 1694. So, let's consult the 1762 edition for a word sounding close to the "scoop", the "scoop", thus defined: "A species of hollow shovel with edges, whose we use it to empty the water from the boats.”
What is the relationship between the "scoop", from which the verb "scoop" is taken, and the "scoop"?
A common etymology.
Let's start with the scoop.
Its history takes us back to Middle Dutch, “schoepe” which led, via Middle Low German “schôpe”, to Frankish “skôpa”, the language of Clovis.
From there was born from the 13th century the "escope", which will soon be pronounced "scoop".
What then etymologically of the English "scoop"?
Well, it comes from the same Middle Low German schope!
Now the word "scoop" entered the English language at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
The English etymologists then ask the question: does the "scoop" come directly from the scope?
With the same common ancestor, "schôpe", it is indeed a safe bet that the old French "escope", common in the north of France rich in an intense maritime life, was brought to English via the English Channel... We were about to forget the essential: what did "scoop" mean in English in the 14th century?
Specifically a scoop, a hollow shovel with a short handle, used to remove water from boats.
From the shovel to the press...
The English word would gradually take on new meanings, particularly by crossing the Atlantic.
Words like to swim from one continent to another... This was the case with the verb to scoop, originally to scoop, which in colloquial English also designated the fact of picking up on the ground, in the grass, something thing more quickly than the others, or even more things, a meaning attested to in the 19th century and by analogy, from 1874, it was the journalistic fact in short of pulling the rug out from under a competitor, by having "picked up" information more quickly.
The journalistic and then more widely mediated “scoop” was born... And it was in 1957 that we reported its appearance in our language.
Without anyone making the connection between the scoop and the scoop.
And in French...
If it is difficult to push back the “scoop”, at least it would be necessary not to forget what the French language offers more precise or in any case of equivalent.
In fact, very early on our institutions, the French Academy, the General Delegation for the French language, offered us quality equivalents and a decree of October 10, 1985 already recommended the use of “exclusivity”.
"Having exclusive" information, giving information "exclusively", that is also very clear.
There is also the “first of information”, first being already attested in this sense since the 17th century.
“Preview”, “last hour” can also supplement the “scoop”.
Ultimately, we can “bail out” without hesitation in the hold of our great ship, by fishing out words that should not be allowed to become rare.
Offer a bouquet of words,
it is always and far preferable to the "single word".
Moreover, "primeur" rhyming with "flower", it's encouraging to say the least!
Jean Pruvost is the author of French dictionaries, tools of a language and a culture, Ophrys, 2022.