"Mc-" prefix, 1963

[Chris F Waigl]

Mark Peters wrote:
> The lead dude on the show is nicknamed Dr. McDreamy--another is McSteamy. No insult there at all. Characters come up with words like "McDog" and "McLife" that are also non-McDonalds and non-derogatory, though I seem to remember another character threatening to "McVomit" about all this.
>
>   648,000 Google hits for McDreamy at the moment, so that word's getting a workout.
>
>   Mark
>
> Joseph Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Joseph Salmons
> Subject: Re: "Mc-" prefix, 1963
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Actually, there's a whole string of humorous, derogatory McYZ names
> out there. Mr. Verb (http://mr-verb.blogspot.com/) had a piece on
> them this morning, shortly before the first message on this topic
> came through. It's timely since McDonalds reportedly not long ago
> renewed their fight to have 'mcjob' pulled from OED. (My personal
> favorite is a radio show calling Tom Delay "Drunky McPukeshoes".) The
> examples there are almost all political, so a step farther from the
> fastfood chain. They go back a couple of years, at least, I think.
>
> What does McDreamy mean and how is it used? The prefix has taken on a
> pretty negative meaning in basically all of the examples I know of,
> but that doesn't sound obviously negative.
>
> Joe
>

"McJobs" and the request to have it taken out of the OED gets two
mentions in today's Guardian:

- http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2087862,00.html -- A comment
piece by Polly Toynbee, mostly, but not all, about low-wage jobs in Britain
- http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2087975,00.html -- The
daily "In praise of ..." column. Today: dictionary definitions.

Chris Waigl
who now has online OED access via the Manchester Public Library

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