Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 11:31:11 -0800

From: Allen Maberry maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU

Subject: Re: McX



I've never heard of McMansion, but it is too good not to use.



On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, Peter McGraw wrote:



The "most Imaginative" WOTY for 1993, cited in Alan Metcalf's press

release last week - "McJob, a generic, unstimulating, low-paying job" -

piqued my curiosity.



Here in Oregon there is a term for a particular type of oversized,

expensive and pretentious but (IMHO) ugly house which typically crops up

either cheek-by-jowl with similar monstrosities in crowded subdivisions or

in mini-estates in rural subdivisions which sprawl over and consume former

forest or farm land. These houses are called by some "McMansions." I

heard it only recently and thought it singularly apt, but have no idea how

long it has been around.



1) Is the term "McMansion" known elsewhere?



2) Together, the 1993 WOTY and this one would seem to indicate a

productive use of the prefix Mc- meaning something like "McX is to X as a

McDonald's hamburger is to a GOOD hamburger." Is this something new, or

has it been around at least since 1993 and I am only now tumbling to it?

(I did check back a few years in American Speech, but possibly not far

enough.)



Peter McGraw

Linfield College

McMinnville, OR