[Ads-l] Early Use of The Real Mackay

[Baker, John]

In the OED, the earliest citation for "real McCoy" is "A drappie o' the real McKay" in a poem from 1856, which the OED puts in brackets.  The OED's etymology discussion says:  "Originally in form the real Mackay , and in the earliest recorded uses (quots. 1865  and 1880 at sense A. 1) echoing use in a tagline of G. McKay and Co. of Edinburgh, distillers of whisky (see quot. 1856 at sense A. 1). This may show the origin of all later use. However, the tagline is likely to reflect an existing phrase, which may have arisen by confusion for the place name Reay in the name of the Reay branch of the Mackay family."

Here is a non-whisky example from 1861, antedating all existing examples other than the 1856 poem.  This is from The Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener, and Country Gentleman, dated Nov. 19, 1861, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=UK6JT2d8W_AC&pg=PA159&dq=%22real+mackay%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCgpuvuYLNAhWClx4KHTNCBoI4ChDoAQg8MAY#v=onepage&q=%22real%20mackay's%22.  It is from a correspondent who signs himself or herself as "A Renfrewshire Bee-Keeper" (Renfrewshire being a place in lowland Scotland) and is an account of receiving a hybridized queen and worker bees:  "I then replaced the lid with only one regret, that it was not a party of the "real Mackay's" that had so safely reached me."  

This early use supports, though it does not confirm, the OED's speculation that the G. McKay and Co. tagline reflected a pre-existing phrase.  Support for this view is also shown by a question and answer in the book 1,000 Answers to 1,000 Questions Being a Reprint of the First 1,000 Questions in Tit-Bits Inquiry Column, with the Replies Thereto (1884), https://books.google.com/books?id=vPgIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA222&dq=%22real+mackay%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB-aOJtoLNAhWKuB4KHR3vC344ChDoAQgzMAU#v=onepage&q=%22real%20mackay%22.  I assume that Tit-Bits was some sort of newspaper question and answer column; this Q&A, therefore, likely would have been earlier than 1884, although internal evidence elsewhere in the book suggests not much earlier.

"673.--What is the origin of the Scotch saying, "It's no the real Mackay"?

"It's no the real Mackay," means it is not genuine.  The ancient family or clan of Mackay was so famous for its integrity, honesty, and uprightness that its name passed into a proverb, and anything not fundamentally correct, or with the least suspicion of not being absolutely genuine, was said not to be the real Mackay (Mackai)."


John Baker

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