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

>