More Evidence on "The Real McCoy"

[Fred Shapiro]

Recently Barry Popik posted a 1914 citation linking the expression "the
real McCoy" to the boxer Kid McCoy.  This substantially improved upon the
earliest evidence Peter Tamony had found (in truly extensive researches)
linking the term with the boxer (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.

I have now found still earlier evidence linking "the real McCoy" to Kid
McCoy:

1904 _Los Angeles Times_ 19 Sept. 6  If "Kid" McCoy's real name is Selby,
then he is not "the real McCoy," after all.

It still appears most likely that "the real McCoy" is simply a variant of
the Scottish phrase "the real Mackay," and Jonathon Green's 1901 citation
for "real McCoy" without reference to the boxer still precedes any
documented Kid McCoy linkage, but the Kid McCoy theory (that at least the
boxer contributed to the Mackay-to-McCoy shift) is looking more plausible
all the time.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------