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

[Dave Robertson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Art Goodtimes" <cloudacre at NORWOODCOLORADO.US>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2004 3:29 AM
Subject: Re: muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)


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> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Art Goodtimes <cloudacre at NORWOODCOLORADO.US>
> Subject:      Re: muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> is "muckety-muck" a more recent variant?
>
> art goodtimes
>
> On 29 Dec 2004 at 15:14, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- 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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