LL-L "Etymology" 2006.01.03 (06) [E]

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   L O W L A N D S - L * 03 January 2006 * Volume 06
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From: Paul Tatum <ptatum at blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2006.01.03 (02) [E]

hello all,

Ron wrote re macker:

> Might the connection go back to "Flemish" garment workers in Britain or, 
> perhaps more likely, to Continental workers in the Toon's (i.e., 
> Newcastle's) steel industry?

Or sailors - we were a port facing the low countries. Up to now, my 
feeling was that 'makker' might not be specifically Geordie, but was 
'mucker' (military slang?) in Geordie guise. And I was _sure_ that the 
Aussie word was mucker not macker, which just goes to show how much I 
don't know. It seems to me that if the Australians used it for raw 
recruits, it was because the greenhorn ended up with all the mucky jobs 
(aren't folk etymologies great?). But I think it more likely that the 
Aussies originally got mucker from Geordie, which got it from the low 
countries, and then it was borrowed back into English English via the 
army. Don't know about the origins of 'marra', though conceivably(how do 
you spell that?) it could have developed from 'makka'. I would say that 
makker isn't as common as 'marra' (makker perhaps sounds too much like 
mackem for comfort, a mackem being an inhabitant of Sunderland. It seems 
everybody has to have somebody they can look down on, and for Geordies 
it's mackems)

And I don't think makka/macker/ etc  has a spelling, Heather, so spell 
it as you fancy - we won't send a couple of our marras round to correct 
you :-)

Ttfn, Paul Tatum

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