Fw: muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)

[Dave Robertson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Benjamin Zimmer" <bgzimmer at rci.rutgers.edu>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 12:14 PM
Subject: muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU>
> Subject:      muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> muck-a-muck (OED3 has 1902 for the 'bigwig' sense - contracting the
> earlier "high-muck-a-muck", reanalyzed as containing the element "high"):
>
> --------
> 1883 _(Reno) Daily Nevada State Journal_ 6 May 2/2 They are not satisfied
> with the position of Division Superintendent of creation but they want to
> be Most Worthy High Grand Muck-a-Muck of the entire ranch or their lives
> are gloomy fizzles.
> --------
> 1885 _(Fort Wayne, Indiana) Daily Gazette_ 1 Dec. 6/5 Here I have been
> snubbed on the congressional committee to the funeral and now you go and
> let Mont Hamilton parade as the big muck-a-muck of my own Jeffersonians.
> --------
> 1894 _Portsmouth (Ohio) Times_ 6 Oct. 3/2 The Hon. James Weaver, chief
> muck-a-muck of the colored K. of P.'s ... went to Chillicothe Monday
> morning to "do" the races.
> --------
> 1895 _Syracuse (NY) Herald_ 6 Feb. 1/1 (heading) Mayor Strong a
> muck-a-muck indeed.
> --------
> 1896 _(Honolulu) Hawaiian Gazette 27 March 7/3 We are the brains, the
> muck-a-muck; let unbelievers quake.
> --------
>
> The 1883 cite ("High Grand Muck-a-Muck") is perhaps transitional, since it
> still has the element "high" ("Grand High Muck-a-Muck" appears elsewhere).
>
> Didn't find any early uses of "mucky-muck" in the 'bigwig' sense, but I
> did find the following cite where it seems to mean 'ragtag' or 'riffraff',
> suggesting a simple reduplication of English "muck(y)":
>
> --------
> 1885 _Davenport (Iowa) Daily Gazette_ 21 March 2/4 If such another dive
> was not to be erected, it would be a credit to that neighborhood, as the
> one just departed was but the rendezvous of toughs and a general
> mucky-muck crowd.
> --------
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer

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