Scoot vs. Scooter

As I recently drove my daughter to school, we saw a scooter drive past us. My daughter noted that it was scootering past us. I told her that there’s no such word and the word she wanted was scooting.

But that conversation got me thinking. Is scoot the correct word? Isn’t it a slang word?

In checking the dictionary, I discovered that if scoot is a slang word, it’s an awfully old slang word. Scoot goes back to at least 1758 and means “move swiftly.” But it probably goes back further, to Old Norse skjōta meaning “to shoot.”

Scooter, meanwhile, doesn’t go as far back. One dictionary I checked says it goes back to about 1810 (scoot + -er) and another says 1916 to mean “a child’s vehicle that typically has two wheels with a low footboard between them, is steered by a handlebar, and is propelled by pushing one foot against the ground while resting the other on the footboard.”

It’s also short for “motor scooter.”

My daughter often says to me, “Write a blog about it.” OK, sweetie, I did.

Until next time! Use the right words!

leebarnathan.com