An old Washington State College football cheer

[Mike Cleven]

Jeffrey Kopp wrote:
>
> Well, to my memory of elders' usage, in early-mid 20th century NW
> slang, "high muckymuck" had little to do with food but was somewhat
> pejorative, meaning "big shot," though it certainly derived from
> dining, i.e., literally meaning  those who sit at the head of the
> table/next to those at the head of the table to eat.
>
> In the case of the cheer, I might imagine the repeated "muck-e-i" may
> have meant something like "drink, drink [to Washington,]" though
> someone who was there (or more likely these days a child of someone
> who was there) will be needed to attest to this possible local
> permutation.
>
> I do recall hearing "muckmuckmuck" used meaning "I/we/they ate it all
> up" or "(it was) pretty fine food;" this usage last heard by me,
> however, when I was in Seattle 17 years ago.
>

Here's a bit of tangent, but maybe not; the Britishism "mucking about",
presumably from "out in the muck (and the mire", again presumably
meaning muddy, sticky ground.  But could this allusion to "muck" somehow
still have to do with food, i.e. "slop" of the kind no doubt common in
the fur trade, perhaps coming back first to the Orkneys and Scotland by
retired HBCers and then.....just a fantasy, perhaps, and there's likely
no real connection other than both Chinook "muck" and British-Sctos
"muck" seem to have an onomatopaeic structure based on lip-smacking (or
boot-smacking, one supposes....)

MC