maguffin ( probably dated 1935)

[Garson O'Toole]

Below is an excerpt that uses of the term maguffin three times in
1935. This is within a few years of the date of first known use of the
term MacGuffin (McGuffin) by Hitchcock in 1939. This information is
extracted from Google Books and I have not verified it on paper or
microfilm, hence it may be incorrect. Also, the biographical
information below has not been carefully vetted. Searches performed
within the HathiTrust database yield the same volume number and year.

In 1935 the Transactions of the Electrochemical Society published a
profile of Dr. Frank Jerome Tone. Tone was a wealthy scientist and
president of the Carborundum Company. He was awarded the Acheson Award
by the Electrochemical Society. The profile is written by Carl G.
Schluederberg and it claims that Tone used the term maguffin to refer
to an implement carved from driftwood. After the excerpt I will
present a hypothesis about why Tone used this name.

Cite: 1935, Transactions of the Electrochemical Society, GB Page 18,
[A profile of Frank Jerome Tone by Carl G. Schluederberg begins on GB
Page 15], Volume 68, Electrochemical Society. (Google Books snippet
view; Not verified on paper; Data may be inaccurate)

The unceasing activity of his mentality is illustrated even in minor
things. For example, at lunch on a hunting expedition during the time
when tea is being boiled by the guides, perhaps on the sandy,
sheltered beach of some lake, a custom in French-Canadian Quebec from
time immemorial, while the others loll idly around grousing about the
hard walking or cold weather or alibiing missed shots, Frank will be
selecting odd pieces of small driftwood full of crooks and knots and
with a penknife quickly fashion some useful article such as a cane, a
fork, or a "maguffin," the latter, for the benefit of the uninitiated,
is a small crotched stick fitting the hand and having a blunt rounded
end eminently suitable for crushing a lump of sugar laid in the bottom
of a heavy glass to which a few drops of Angostura Bitters have been
added preparatory to the making of one of those delights to the soul
of mankind, popularly known as an Old-Fashioned.

The name "maguffin," like many another popularly acquired appellation,
has no direct bearing on the subject at all but is simply an off-shoot
from a story which he made use of to answer the inevitable questions
as to what he was making. Now that prohibition, for long years largely
a figment of some puritanical imaginations, has finally sunk into the
proverbial innocuous desuetude, the demand for these aforementioned
"maguffins" among Frank Tone's friends has resulted in many of the
larger lakes of the Gatineau region being about denuded of small
driftwood and is undoubtedly largely responsible for the present-day
great popularity of Old-Fashioneds.

http://books.google.com/books?id=XhwZAQAAIAAJ&q=Jerome#search_anchor

Is there any commonality in these different uses of the term maguffin?
Here is one possibility:

A maguffin is an object that is only partially known. It may be inside
a crate, or inside a package, or wrapped up as a gift. It may also be
only partially constructed, and thus its final shape and full purpose
may be unknown.

A questioner wants to know the identity of the object. The individual
being questioned does not want to provide an answer. Therefore, he or
she simply calls the object a maguffin.

This fits the term "MacGuffin" in Hitchcock's version of the mongoose story.

This fits the Christmas gift label of "McGuffin". The giver knows the
identity but does not want to reveal it.

In Frank Tone's case he was probably carving driftwood with a penknife
and someone insistently asked him what he was working on. He did not
want to answer. He may not have known the answer. So he said it was a
maguffin. The excerpt says Tone told a "story", so it is possible that
Tone told a tale similar to the one given by Hitchcock to explain the
term maguffin.

Looking forward to hearing other ideas,
Garson

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