Real McCoy (1914, 1915, 1916)

[Fred Shapiro]

On Tue, 8 Jul 2003 Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

>    The HDAS has 13 Jan. 1915 T. A. Dorgan for the first "real McCoy."  The
> next citation is 1917.  I looked for other cites.
>
>    14 December 1914, NEVADA STATE JOURNAL (Reno, Nevada), pg. 6, col. 1:
> _THE REAL McCOY COMES_
> _TO RENO THOS MORNING_
>    "Kid" McCoy, the one and original real McCoy, is on his way to Reno and

I think this is an extremely important discovery.  For one thing, it does
push back slightly the first use of the term "real McCoy."  More
significantly, it gives a new life to the Kid McCoy theory about the
adaptation of the term.  I believe that the earliest evidence Peter Tamony
found (in truly extensive researches) linking the term with the boxer was
1930.  HDAS dismisses the Kid McCoy theory ("No reliable evidence exists
to show that the Scottish phrase _the real McKay/Mackay_ became McCoy in
the U.S. through association with Amer. champion boxer 'Kid McCoy'"), but
the citation Barry has found may be that evidence.

Some might argue that this find bolsters the theory that "real McCoy"
arose independently of "real Mackay" and that their resemblance is
coincidental.  I think that theory is a stretch, especially since one of
the liquor references in HDAS is a 1908 citation that spells the word as
"McCoy."

Any comments from Jesse Sheidlower or Tom Dalzell or Jonathon Green?  Do
any of you have still earlier evidence of "real McCoy" in your files?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
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