From Prohibition to Traffic Law: Scofflaw Introduced here in 1924

100 years ago the morning paper brought a new word to the attention of Salemites.

January 22nd, 1924

They said:

An interesting and expressive new word has recently been added to the American vocabulary, coined by virtue of a national prize contest...to stab awake the public conscience, and to help make lawless drinking "bad form." Out of 25,000 words submitted throughout the United States, "Scofflaw" was the prize-winner and will immediately go "on duty"...

Probably this was nationally distributed, a rewrite of a press release and part of a PR campaign, and not anything organically generated here.

As a neologism or slang it's attested sparsely in the 1920s, and even into the 30s. There's not good evidence for any strong kind of organic growth in use and adoption.

One notable early use is in a crossword — something that could even be a kind of paid placement, a way to seed the language and get "word people" talking about it and using it.

January 23rd, 1925

In 1933 there's a clear use beyond prohibition, and that's a clear sign of generalizing usage.

June 4th, 1933

The familiar traffic context also developed.

June 21st, 1935

But its frequency was not very high even in the 1930s and in 1946 the paper could talk about a revival of the word, as if with Prohibition's demise it had fallen from use. This time with lumber companies and fair trade law.

June 28th, 1946

They say "Prohibition left us more than the word 'scofflaw,' it left us with the spirit of contempt for regulatory law."

The spiky peak in 1924

On the frequency graph from google books you can see the sudden rise and peak of usage in 1924. It falls off thereafter, and then slow rise to our contemporary level of usage.

I read this as confirming evidence that even with a coordinated public relations plan, it's difficult to introduce a new word with staying power, and it has to be adopted more organically.

In the 1964 obituary for the sponsor of the contest, the NY Times/AP noted the slippage in primary context to traffic law:

In 1923 Mr. King gained the nation's attention by offering $200 in gold for a new word best describing “the lawless drinker.” “Scofflaw,” the entry of Miss Kate L. Butler of Dorchester, Mass., was chosen over 25,000 others. Mr. King, the superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America and a Boston minister were the judges.

Among the losers were such neologisms as “boozocrat” and "boozshevik.” The word “scoff law” has lost much of its original meaning, and is now principally applied to those who ignore parking tickets.