[Lexicog] Re: McJob

[Fritz Goerling]

Here is the translation of the famous song "Mackie Messer"

("Mack the Knife") from German playwright Bert Brecht's "The Threepenny
Opera:"

 

Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear

      And it shows them pearly white

      Just a jackknife has old MacHeath, babe

      And he keeps it . ah . out of sight.

 

As Bill Shakespeare is on the headlines on this list at the moment, I
wonder, John, whether he is to blame for the "M(a)c" prefix meaning "bad"
(Macbeth)? But there is MacDuff in "Macbeth"? That might demolish your
theory. ;-)

 

Fritz

I didn't Google first! McFood (= 'junk food') is already out there. 
There are even restaurants, such as the McFood and Coffee restaurant in 
Bratislava, that are using the name.

So it is already established that "Mc" is an English prefix meaning 'bad'.

John R

-- 
********************
John R Roberts
SIL International Linguistics Consultant
dr_john_roberts@ <mailto:dr_john_roberts%40sil.org> sil.org
********************

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lexicography/attachments/20070524/849b0e27/attachment.htm>