Muggles, manbags, and McGwire Specials

Cablinasian, n. In 1997 golfer Tiger Woods identified his ethnicity as Cablinasian, a blend of Caucasian + black + Indian + Asian. The word never really caught on, but it certainly contributed to awareness of people with multiple ethnicities.

Must have missed that one. And if a word doesn’t catch on I’m not sure how much it can really contribute to awareness of people with multiple ethnicities simply because most people will be completely unaware of the word’s existence.

Divx, n. Divx, or digital video express, was a short-lived video format that allowed users to play a video a limited number of times, one of the many technological attempts to reconcile the new electronic media with old business models.

I was just about to say that Divx is alive and well when I realized that the popular codec for videos is DivX. Wikipedia differentiates the old video format by writing it DIVX.

mack, v. This slang verb has a long history. It goes back to the nineteenth century in the sense of “to work as a pimp,” and is probably from the French slang macquereau meaning “pimp.”

Does Brecht’s Mack the Knife from Die Dreigroschenoper have reference to this? Is he called Mack in the German text?

Prince Albert, n. This name for a piercing through the glans of a penis makes its debut back in 1977. The term comes from a highly dubious story about the consort of Queen Victoria having one.

Queen Victoria would not be amused.

Does Brecht’s Mack the Knife from Die Dreigroschenoper have reference to this? Is he called Mack in the German text?

Ja, er heisst “Mackie Messer”.

Dr. Techie - 20 July 2012 01:32 PM

Does Brecht’s Mack the Knife from Die Dreigroschenoper have reference to this? Is he called Mack in the German text?

Ja, er heisst “Mackie Messer”.

The way I’ve heard it pronounced, by Germans in an early recording, is /’mɛ ki/.

mack, v. This slang verb has a long history. It goes back to the nineteenth century in the sense of “to work as a pimp,” and is probably from the French slang macquereau meaning “pimp.” But the sense shifted in the late 1960s, and by 1968 to mack was prostitution jargon for a pimp seducing of a stable of prostitutes.

Something’s gone wrong with the last quoted sentence (delete “of”?).

As a side note, I’m having a hard time believing that Titanic and Harry Potter go back as far as 1997.  For some reason, that seems just right for Austin Powers, though.

Does Brecht’s Mack the Knife from Die Dreigroschenoper have reference to this? Is he called Mack in the German text?

He’s called “Mack” or “Mackie” because his name is MacHeath. You will recall that he is based on Captain MacHeath of Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, from which Brecht took his inspiration. It is true, though, that the French abbreviation for maquereau, meaning “a pimp”, is usually mec rather than mac, and that Mack’s name is usually pronounced in German “Meckie” rather than “Mackie”.

Dr. Techie - 20 July 2012 01:32 PM

Does Brecht’s Mack the Knife from Die Dreigroschenoper have reference to this? Is he called Mack in the German text?

Ja, er heisst “Mackie Messer”.

Ach so!

And if a word doesn’t catch on I’m not sure how much it can really contribute to awareness of people with multiple ethnicities simply because most people will be completely unaware of the word’s existence.

It was widely published and discussed in the newspapers at the time. It was a big word in 1997, not so much afterward. That’s what I mean by not catching on. Prior to Tiger Woods, the media treated people of mixed ethnicities as either one or the other.

Part of this exercise is to look at words associated with a particular era, not just the ones that entered into widespread use and are still with us today.

Ah, I see what you mean, Dave, that’s quite clear now.