"Mc-" prefix, 1963

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Fri May 25 14:09:19 UTC 2007


On 5/25/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>
> On May 24, 2007, at 11:02 AM, Hillary Brown wrote:
>
> > X-y McXerson is surprisingly old. I remember using that formulation in
> > high school, back in the mid-1990s, especially with the ultimate
> > frisbee team. It may have originated with (or been popularized by)
> > _The Simpsons_, as was the case with much of the frisbeeans' jokes.
>
> i don't find it in the usual lists of Simpsons words and phrases, but
> it might be out there someplace.

Not quite "X-y McXerson", but a commenter on the recent Mr. Verb post
recalled the name Tipsy McStagger from "Flaming Moe's" (Season 3,
aired Nov 21, 1991). In the episode, a representative from Tipsy
McStagger's Good Time Drinking and Eating Emporium tries to get the
recipe for the "Flaming Moe" drink from Moe the bartender.

Bizarrely enough, there is now a Rochester bar named Tipsy
McStagger's. A local paper suggests these expansions to the franchise:
"Boozy McBeer's, Sloppy Besotted, Pukey McSloshed, Strungout
McJunkie's."
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/goesout/night/020711club_tipsy.shtml


--Ben Zimmer

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