McMansion

[Michael Quinion]

James A. Landau wrote:

> 2) in an article about developers taking over old airfields, someone
> was quoted as complaining about the developers building "McMansions".
> Now "mcjobs" is plausible and reasonably obvious in meaning, but what
> the Mac is a "McMansion"?

This came up when I was writing about "McJob" recently. In Britain it
is usually a derogatory term for a modest new home, the architectural
equivalent of the hamburger, but in the US it's a pretentious, over-
sized mini-mansion (think pillared portico and gold bathroom taps)
that has been squeezed on to an urban building lot.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>