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Thread: "scrap" or "scrape"...?

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    szaroczek is offline Junior Member
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    Default "scrap" or "scrape"...?

    "The Norton Anthology of American Literature" - autobiography of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Citation: "(One of his stories) reached print in its narrative frame, but the editor of the 'New-England Magazine' scrapped the frame for "Young Goodman Brown" and others that are now known as isolated items instead of interrelated elements in a larger whole."

    When the word "scrapped" is used in the above sentence, does it derive from "scrap" [skrep] or from "scrape" [skreip] ? When I studied precise meaning of both (in English-Polish dict.) I found that each might in some way match and make a sens. Since some of meanings of "scrap" as a verb are sort of "reject", "throw away", "withdraw"; and for "scrape" there was something like "scratch", Of course in writing English you may not worry, 'cause for both terms spelling of past simple form is the same but in speaking English there is a noticeable difference in pronunciation. And after all you simply want to know... So which word is used in the named sentence and then, is this ultimately explicit for any native English-speaking person and any of them would must have done the same choice? .

    Thanks in advance and, by the way, YES, that's correct, you are absolutely right, my next questions would come from... "My Kinsmen, Major Molineux"!

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    JMurray is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: "scrap" or "scrape"...?

    "The Norton Anthology of American Literature" - autobiography of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Citation: "(One of his stories) reached print in its narrative frame, but the editor of the 'New-England Magazine' scrapped the frame for "Young Goodman Brown" and others that are now known as isolated items instead of interrelated elements in a larger whole."

    I know almost nothing about Hawthorne's writing but here's how I see it.
    The editor of the magazine decided to print these stories as individual items rather than present them as parts of a larger "narrative frame". In doing so, he "scrapped" (discarded, removed) this connecting framework.
    So the meaning here is to scrap, discard, reject, remove.

    The past tense of "scrape" is "scraped": "He scraped some butter onto his toast with a small knife". "The chair legs scraped the floor as she stood up".

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    szaroczek is offline Junior Member
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    Default Re: "scrap" or "scrape"...?

    So the solution basically comes from the past tense forms, where for "scrape" it is "scraped" (and not "scrapped", as I mistakenly deemed), and which thus makes clear distinction between the two words and finally implicates the "scrap" to be the suspicious word incorporated to the text... Am I correct with it?

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    JMurray is offline Senior Member
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    Default Re: "scrap" or "scrape"...?

    "to scrap" is the verb you are looking for.
    Another example:
    to tap / he tapped her on the shoulder
    to tape / he taped the new song for her

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    szaroczek is offline Junior Member
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    Default Re: "scrap" or "scrape"...?

    Now I'm at home! Not only have I resolved this particular example's problem, but also learned some universal rule, which is even more great and worthy. Thanks again.

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