"Mc-" prefix, 1963

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Fri May 25 14:44:01 UTC 2007


On 5/24/07, Hillary Brown <hillaryhazelbrown at gmail.com> 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.

If the formation had been popular in the '90s you'd expect it show up
on Usenet newsgroups. So far I haven't been able to find anything
earlier than Nov. 1, 2001 -- the first appearance of Hottie
McHotterson (on rec.games.video.sony), beating out Fatty McFatterson,
Stiffy McStifferson, Drinky McDrinkerson, Jewy McJewerson, etc.

On the more general pattern of X-y McY, a well-circulated list of
nicknames for President Bush includes:

Chimpy McBunnypants
Chimpy McClueless
Chimpy McCokespoon
Chimpy McDrunkard
Chimpy McFlightsuit
Chimpy McPlasticTurkey
Drinky McCokeSpoon
Smirky McChimpster
Smirky McFlightsuit
Smirky McWarHardon

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=358x670

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