McTents

[Laurence Horn]

Through a weird synchronicity, I had just been working on the prefix
Mc- (after reading a chapter in Roger Shuy's book Linguistic Battles
in Trademark Disputes) for a paper coming out of my presentation at
last January's ADS symposium on this topic (trademarks, not Mc- per
se).  Roger points out that McDonald's has managed to claim ownership
of the patronymic prefix at least insofar as its use by companies
that rolled out products of the form McX where McDonald's could claim
the possibility of confusion (including in the case he discusses
Quality Inn and their abortive promotion of "McSleep Inns", later
"Sleep Inns").  Turns out there's a nice entry, unsurprisingly, in
the HDAS, with McDoctors and McJobs and whatnot (even a cite
depicting Schwarzenegger as a McStar), although evidently 1997 was
too early for the heyday of the McMansion.

So anyway, in an article in their Thursday Styles section--
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/fashion/03Physical.html
--the Times covers a new trend:  "They're Taller and Bigger:  The
McTents".  As far as I can tell, the only thing "Mc" about these is
their size, the fact that they're "roomy", "family-ready", have
"bulk", and are "behemoths".  So why McTents?  (It's not as if the
Times could assume that we'd be familiar with the term--this is the
one and only occurrence of the relevant item on Nexis, full text/all
dates, although I did google up a couple of hits with the same
reference, e.g. at
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2330374 .)  My guess
is that this is a spinoff of "McMansions", which are not only (seen
as) standardized, generic, and relatively undistinguished structures
(whence the appropriateness of the Mc- prefix originally transferred
from McDonald's, as depicted by both Roger and Jon) but one which is,
well, a relative behemoth for its site, which presumably these tents
also are, as opposed to ordinary houses or tents.  So these tents are
the McMansions of the campground.  But the original association with
inexpensive and I'd guess even the pejorative qualities retained by
"McMansion" have dropped out in this secondary transfer.  Anyone have
a better or more informed take on the McTent?

LH

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