Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 10:30:46 -0500

From: Ronald Butters amspeech[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ACPUB.DUKE.EDU

Subject: Re: McX



On Fri, 12 Jan 1996, Allan Metcalf wrote:



" . . . 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?"



David Barnhart's very valuable _Barnhart New-Words Concordance_ (Cold Spring

NY, Lexik House 1994) leads to one previous notice, "McDoctor" in the

_Barnhart Dictionary Companion_ 4.4 (Winter 1985). The word denotes "the

'urgicenters,' 'surgicenters' and 'quick care centers' that have sprung up in

business districts and shopping centers."



All students of McX ought to read the article in AMERICAN SPEECH, based

onl an enormous amount of reserach, which Genine Lentine and Roger Shuy

published in the Winter 1990 issue (65.4: 349-66): "Mc-: Meaning in the

Marketplace"!