High-muck-a-muck

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

High-muck-a-muck

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Oct 15, 2022 8:32 pm

• high-muck-a-muck •


Pronunciation: hai-mêk-ê-mêk • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A derisive term referring to someone who is pompous and arrogant; a big wheel, a grand pooh-bah, a panjandrum.

Notes: This is a word we use to jeer someone who is too big for his britches. It is a playful word although it bears an insulting message. This word comes to us without a family, but we do have several variants: high-you-muck-a-muck, high-muckety-muck, and high-mucky-muck.

In Play: No doubt the high in today's Good Word was influenced by the phrase, "high and mighty", since this expression means about the same as today's word: "Portia Carr likes to hobnob with the high-muck-a-mucks at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach." Her husband, Parker, doesn't share her interests.

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Chinook jargon: hayo "plenty" + mucka-muck "food". It came into English around 1850 as high-you-muck-a-muck, then transitioned into what it is today. The Chinook jargon was a pidgin used from Washington and Oregon up to Alaska to facilitate trade between peoples not speaking the same language. A pidgin is not a language but a simple list of words, all related to trade, that speakers of both languages know. When a pidgin develops a grammar of its own, it then becomes a creole. To be a creole, a pidgin must have a fully fledged grammar and become the native language of a community. In some areas Chinook took on these features. (David Stevens is no high-muck-a-muck, but he is much appreciated at alphaDictionary for his contribution of today's Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: High-muck-a-muck

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Oct 16, 2022 3:51 am

Here in the hinterlands, we say "High-muckety-muck", which I find as an alternate rendering of high-muck-a=much. Thank you for describing pidgin and creole. Where does a patois fit into these distinctions? One of my cousins lived in Haiti for many years and translated the Bible into Haitian creole. He also speaks standard French fluently. When I asked him how Canadian French compared with Haitian Creole and with standard French, he opined that Canadian French was just as much a creole as was Haitian Creole. But he warned me to never tell a French Canadian that. As for French in Louisiana, there seems to be two versions, one in New Orleans and one in their hinterlands. I have a Cajun cousin who grew up in Louisianna. You may note that I have many cousins. I boast that I am multilingual. I speak American English, Appalachian and Red Neck.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: High-muck-a-muck

Postby Slava » Sun Oct 16, 2022 7:37 am

Just in case there's any confusion, I'd like to point out that the Grand Panjandra of the Agora are not usually pompous, arrogant, or supercilious. We just post a lot and have been here a while. :D

:mrgreen: (What IS this thing supposed to be, anyway?)
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Debbymoge
Lexiterian
Posts: 305
Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2021 2:15 pm

Re: High-muck-a-muck

Postby Debbymoge » Sun Oct 16, 2022 11:36 am

Which is the intended version?
Muck-a-much, or muck-a-muck?
Or is the second version the pronounced and the first the written?
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Shakespear


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 36 guests