scoff v.

"push along by direct, continuous strength; attempt to move by pushing," Middle English shouven, from Old English scufan, sceofan "push away, thrust, push with violence" (class II strong verb; past tense sceaf, past participle scoven), from Proto-Germanic *skūbanan (source also of Old Norse skufa, Old Frisian skuva, Dutch schuiven, Old High German scioban, German schieben "to push, thrust," Gothic af-skiuban), from PIE root *skeubh- "to shove" (source also of scuffle, shuffle, shovel; likely cognates outside Germanic include Lithuanian skubti "to make haste," skubinti "to hasten").

It has been replaced by push in all but colloquial and nautical usage. The intransitive sense of "press or push forward" was in Old English. Related: Shoved; shoving.

Shove off "leave" (1844) is from the boating sense of "cause to move away from shore by pushing with poles or oars (c. 1600). Shove the queer (1859) was an old expression for "to counterfeit money." Shove it had an earlier sense of "depart" before it became a rude synonym for stick it (by 1941) with implied destination.

"one endowed with the gift and power of imaginative invention and creation, attended by corresponding eloquence of expression, commonly but not necessarily in a metrical form" [Century Dictionary, 1895], early 14c., "a poet, an author of metrical compositions; one skilled in the art of making poetry; a singer" (c. 1200 as a surname), from Old French poete (12c., Modern French poète) and directly from Latin poeta "a poet," from Greek poētēs "maker, author, poet," variant of poiētēs, from poein, poiein "to make, create, compose," from PIE *kwoiwo- "making," from root *kwei- "to pile up, build, make" (source also of Sanskrit cinoti "heaping up, piling up," Old Church Slavonic činu "act, deed, order").

Replaced Old English scop (which survives in scoff). Used in 14c., as in classical languages, for all sorts of writers or composers of works of literature. Poète maudit, "a poet insufficiently appreciated by his contemporaries," literally "cursed poet," is attested by 1930, from French (1884, Verlaine). For poet laureate see laureate.

"Communication" will not explain poetry. I will not say that there is not always some varying degree of communication in poetry, or that poetry could exist without any communication taking place. There is room for very great individual variation in the motives of equally good individual poets; and we have the assurance of Coleridge, with the approval of Mr. Housman, that "poetry gives most pleasure when only generally and not perfectly understood." [T.S. Eliot, "The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism"]