premack (verb)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 7/25/07, Evan Bradley <yevb00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm familiar with the noun"mack," as in "mack daddy."
>
> M-W has:
> mack daddy
> Etymology: argot mac, mack pimp, probably short for obsolete argot
> mackerel, from Middle English makerel, from Anglo-French makerelle
> procuress, ultimately from Middle Dutch mAkelaer broker
> 1 slang : a conspicuously successful pimp
> 2 slang : a slick womanizer
> 3 slang : one that is the best
>
> Wiktionary adds: "(slang) Hitting on a potential sexual target." Here
> it's listed as noun, but I've heard it used as a verb, e.g. " to mack
> (on) (someone)". see also "get your mack on"
> [ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=get+your+mack+on ]
> [ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mack ]

HDAS has the verb "mack", sense 1b: "(of a pimp) to talk (to a woman)
in a fluently ingratiating way; (_hence_) (usu. of a man) to speak
flirtatiously or make a sexual advance (to); (_broadly_) to flirt
(with). Cites from 1968.


--Ben Zimmer

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org