scooby-doo
/ˌskuːbiˈduː/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.14 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
An American cartoon franchise, named for one of the main characters, a large dog, and featuring as protagonists four "meddling" teenagers who unravel seemingly supernatural mysteries.
name
The cartoon dog from that cartoon, noted for his trouble-causing lack of sense and almost understandable vocalization.
Example Sentences
- "I knew I had to be very careful when I was crafting the story, so that it wouldn't be a Scooby Doo moment—you know, the one where the villain rips off his mask and tells you why he did it—and that he would have gotten away with it, if not for those pesky kids!"
- "A mile out of town, off the Combe Martin road, discover a real Scooby Doo experience at Chambercombe Manor. It's shrouded in ghost stories and has starred in TV shows about the paranormal."
- "It was a Scooby-Doo moment: everybody looks down, everybody looks up. Maddy looks surprised. Pat looks guilty. Oh, those meddlesome kids."
- ""I love the Scooby-Doo of it all." And it was fun, combing through old books and papers for recognizable names."
- "And trying to sell him on carrots when he's yearning for Scooby-Doos poses a challenge similar to selling George W. Bush on tax increases."
- "It was like she was talking to me. Not barking, not growling. More of a Scooby Doo sort of thing."
Etymology
Uncertain. Scooby doo appears as a vocable scatted in "The Boppenpoof Song" written in 1954, as the name of a band (The Scooby-Doo All-Stars) in 1956 and the title of a song by the Jerry Lieber Beat Band published by Zephyr Records in 1959 (both of which were signed to Zephyr Records), and lyrics in the song "Denise" by Randy & the Rainbows in 1963. It is likely that such uses were an influence on the creators of the cartoon but they may also have been partially influenced by Frank Sinatra's "doo-be-doo-be-doo" improvisation in "Strangers in the Night" released in 1966 a few years prior to the first episode of Scooby-Doo being shown (in 1969).