muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)

[Art Goodtimes]

is "muckety-muck" a more recent variant?

art goodtimes

On 29 Dec 2004 at 15:14, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

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> ----------------------- Sender:       American Dialect Society
> <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer
> <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU> Subject:      muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> muck-a-muck (OED3 has 1902 for the 'bigwig' sense - contracting the
> earlier "high-muck-a-muck", reanalyzed as containing the element
> "high"):
>
> --------
> 1883 _(Reno) Daily Nevada State Journal_ 6 May 2/2 They are not
> satisfied with the position of Division Superintendent of creation but
> they want to be Most Worthy High Grand Muck-a-Muck of the entire ranch
> or their lives are gloomy fizzles. -------- 1885 _(Fort Wayne,
> Indiana) Daily Gazette_ 1 Dec. 6/5 Here I have been snubbed on the
> congressional committee to the funeral and now you go and let Mont
> Hamilton parade as the big muck-a-muck of my own Jeffersonians.
> -------- 1894 _Portsmouth (Ohio) Times_ 6 Oct. 3/2 The Hon. James
> Weaver, chief muck-a-muck of the colored K. of P.'s ... went to
> Chillicothe Monday morning to "do" the races. -------- 1895 _Syracuse
> (NY) Herald_ 6 Feb. 1/1 (heading) Mayor Strong a muck-a-muck indeed.
> -------- 1896 _(Honolulu) Hawaiian Gazette 27 March 7/3 We are the
> brains, the muck-a-muck; let unbelievers quake. --------
>
> The 1883 cite ("High Grand Muck-a-Muck") is perhaps transitional,
> since it still has the element "high" ("Grand High Muck-a-Muck"
> appears elsewhere).
>
> Didn't find any early uses of "mucky-muck" in the 'bigwig' sense, but
> I did find the following cite where it seems to mean 'ragtag' or
> 'riffraff', suggesting a simple reduplication of English "muck(y)":
>
> --------
> 1885 _Davenport (Iowa) Daily Gazette_ 21 March 2/4 If such another
> dive was not to be erected, it would be a credit to that neighborhood,
> as the one just departed was but the rendezvous of toughs and a
> general mucky-muck crowd. --------
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer