Fw: Re: 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: Thursday, December 30, 2004 1:51 PM
Subject: Re: 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:      Re: muck-a-muck = bigwig (1883)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 04:29:48 -0700, Art Goodtimes
> <cloudacre at NORWOODCOLORADO.US> wrote:
>
>>is "muckety-muck" a more recent variant?
>
> Yep.  As with "muck-a-muck", the original form of "muckety-muck" begins
> with "high" (a folk etymology from Chinook jargon <hiu> 'plenty' +
> <mucka-muck> 'food').  The first cite that Newspaperarchive has for "high
> muckety-muck" is from 1915:
>
> --------
> 1915 _Indianapolis Star_ 3 Apr. 3/2 (heading) High muckety-mucks are named
> by Indiana Society.
> --------
>
> Without "high", the earliest cite is from 1927 (though note that it uses
> "high society", so this is perhaps transitional):
>
> --------
> 1927 _Lima (Ohio) News_ 26 May 13/4 And I helped him get the dope on the
> high society muckety-mucks for his Hindu fakir, Namir Sadh.
> [From _Daughters of Midas_, a serialized novel by Anne Austin.]
> --------
> 1928 _Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune_ 14 Mar. 4/2 Now Lukowsky has a
> savings book with an entry of $1600 in it presented to him by what he
> terms the "big muckety-mucks."
> --------
>
> The OED3 draft entry has a 1928 cite from Claude McKay's _Home to Harlem_
> with the spelling "mucty-muck".
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer

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