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Lord Muck

Posted by RRC on April 18, 2008 at 21:45:

In Reply to: Lord Muck posted by RRC on April 18, 2008 at 21:31:

: : : : Does anyone know the origins of Lady/Lord Muck?

: : : The term I'm familiar with is Lord High Muckety-Muck which I'm guessing might be related. According to a recent Word of the Day on Merriam-Webster's site www.merriam-webster.com/ cgi-bin/mwwodarch.pl?Mar.07.2008 it's from a Chinook jargon term.

: : 'Muckety-muck' and Lord Muck do mean the same thing, but the OED places 'muckety-muck' as a US phrase from the 1920s and cites 'Lord/Lady Muck' from a little earlier - around 1900, and of Australian origin.

: The Merriam-Webster article I linked above says "beginning in the 19th Century" which should mean they have cites in the 1800's. Hmm...

A Google News Archive search shows "Lord High Muck-a-Muck" in the Washington Post in 1917 and the Indiana County Gazette in 1891. The OED has been pre-dated once again...

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