Comments on: Big Mahoff

By: Jared Yandle

Jared Yandle — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:48:33 +0000

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By: Boersenspiel

Boersenspiel — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:09:35 +0000

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By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:57:26 +0000

I grew up in New York/Brooklyn where that term was used. So its not just a Philly term.

By: Charles Fineberg

Charles Fineberg — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:59:36 +0000

Is this Big Macher – transit from Yiddish to something altogether unique? The meaning seems to be the same…

By: Maria Leonard

Maria Leonard — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:18:48 +0000

The proper pronunciation of pavement in Philly is payment. We go to the denis for our teeth, play the pieano in the pallor and say zinc for sink. We never name our boys Otto because we can say it…..comes out Oddo. And yes we never go to the beach until we are down da shore where the ‘lantic Ocean is.

By: Daria

Daria — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 04:56:27 +0000

Since when are hoagies made from baloney? GEEZ! Get your facts straight.

By: BRUCE L

BRUCE L — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 05:05:20 +0000

It’s mahoff in Philly for sure. My In-laws in Pittsburgh know the word as Macher…..say they both derive from German roots or maybe Yiddish! Both cases its the big cheese! And we ate a hoagie while sittin on the pavement before we left the shore to come home, we were shoobies!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:29:40 +0000

I’m from the Allentown Pa area and my dad was a UAW worker at Mack trucks for many years….He usually used the term in a derogatory way….As if someone thinks they are more important than they are. Or maybe he’d just say it that way….” He thinks he’s the Big Mahoff”……I always thought it was funny and he’d laugh when I said it when I was in grade school….And pavement for sidewalk and hoagies for subs are stillthe way I think of them.

By: frankie d.

frankie d. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:22:37 +0000

so then there’s “center city”.
someone thought i was tawking about an actual city named center.
go figure.

how about “youz”? for “you all” or you with someone else or just one “you”.

how about “the blue route”? an actual numbered highway!

my dad was a big mahoff: my definition?
it’s a guy or a woman who thinks they’re a ‘big shot’ but is actually a mean, mistrusted, misunderstood fool.

that’s my take on that “wacky” city of brotherly love!

By: Alix

Alix — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:23:44 +0000

OMG…this word is not known around the world? New to ME ! :)

from Haverford, PA (you know, just outside PH)

By: Brian Mahoff

Brian Mahoff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:03:27 +0000

Id like to know what thats all about. My last name is Mahoff.

By: Dr. Dan Chandler

Dr. Dan Chandler — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:59:19 +0000

Lived in Philly all my life till moving to South Carolina to teach at a small college. Big Mahoff is a Philly term all the way…Real Philly cheesesteaks do not chop up the meat and cheese into an unrecognizable heap of goo- the meat stays in one piece- and we never go “to the beach” we go “Down the Shore.”

By: Stephen Goldstein

Stephen Goldstein — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:13:57 +0000

I have been searching for the origin of the big mahoff for ages to no avail.

Every Philadelphia native knows it, but few outside the city do.

As a city known for political and group braggadocio (whether valid or not), having its own term for a person that epitomizes his representation makes perfect sense.

It has a wonderful air about it, much better than big shot or top dog. Of course, I may be biased…

By: RolyMole

RolyMole — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:25:56 +0000

What’s wrong with “pavement” for sidewalk? it’s been in common British usage for decades.

By: Vicky

Vicky — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:57:44 +0000

I heard something like this as a kid, only it was “big mehab”. I think it comes from “mahiip” which is, I believe, the word for “king” in one or another Hindu dialect. Maybe in Kipling?