Kitty

Filed Under January 2007, columns | 1 Comment

Hooray for whatsisname.

Dear Word Detective: What is the origin of the word “kitty” when used to mean a “collection of cash between several people”? — Alan West.

Good question. I’m more familiar with the plural form, “kitties,” which are small hairy creatures that collect cash from your pocket in return for shredding your furniture and sleeping in the sink.

But most of us are also familiar with a “kitty” in the sense you mean. Among the delights (cough, cough) of working in a large office, as I did for many years, are the incessant collections of such “kitties” to throw office birthday parties for people you’ve never met. After a while you begin to wonder if Larry in the fax room even exists. The only certainty is that if you fail to kick in a buck or two, you’ll never get another fax. “Kitty” is also often used as a synonym for the “pot” of money at stake in a poker or other card game.

Since I mentioned cats, the first step in our kitty-quest is to note that “kitty” in the “money” sense has no connection to “kitty” in the cat sense, a form of “kitten,” which in turn is derived from the French “chaton,” the diminutive of “chat” (cat). And although, as fans of “Gunsmoke” will remember, Miss Kitty was often seen hovering in the vicinity of poker games in the saloon, her moniker was simply a derivative (along with “Kate” and “Katy”) of the name “Katherine,” and thus unrelated to either gambling or cats.

Now as to the origin of “kitty” in the “collected money” sense, which first appeared in the late 19th century, the Oxford English Dictionary has an interesting theory, tracing it to “kidcote,” a dialect term from northern England for a prison. The OED is silent on the exact logic of this “kitty-kidcote” connection, but Michael Quinion (at the excellent www.worldwidewords.org) notes a related theory that the money in a gambling “kitty” is “locked up” for the duration of the game as if it were in prison. Mr. Quinion rates this theory as not credible, and I agree.

Far more likely is a connection between “kitty” and “kit,” an 18th century English slang term for “outfit” or “collection,” also found in a soldier’s “kit bag” and “kit and caboodle” meaning “a collection of everything.”

 

 

Mack Daddy

Filed Under January 2007, columns | Leave a Comment

Hey fella, looking for a swim upstream?

Dear Word Detective: I’ve just discovered how hard it is to do your job. I know that the phrase “mack daddy” came originally from the word “mack,” meaning “pimp,” and that “mack” was short for “mackerel,” the fish. I also know that the word “mackerel” has been slang for “pimp” in other languages for a long time (e.g., French “maquereau”), but how did this rather innocuous-looking fish come to be associated with procurement and how did the word get into the English language? — Jackie.

Well, it wasn’t that hard until you came up with this question. This one gives me a headache.

“Mack daddy” is US slang, primarily in African-American use, currently used to mean a successful, influential and stylish man, especially one popular with women. It is true that “mack daddy” was formerly (and sometimes still is) understood to mean a prosperous pimp or other criminal. But usage has shifted over the past decade or so, and “mack daddy” (or “mac daddy”) is now often used as a more positive and generalized term, as in this citation from Ebony magazine in 1999: “[Comedian Chris] Rock … remembers … staying up late on school nights to watch the Tonight Show. ‘Especially when Bill Cosby used to host …,’ Rock says. ‘He was like so cool. He was a Mac Daddy back then.’”

The phrase “mack daddy” itself seems to date to the early 1950s, when an anonymously-composed song called “The Great MacDaddy” became popular in the African-American community. The element “daddy” is fairly straightforward, having originally been slang for “pimp” that later, like “mack daddy” itself, broadened into a more general term for a man with a commanding presence.

The “mack,” however, is where the headache comes in. It does appear to be short for “mackerel,” but the root of “mackerel” itself is in some dispute. And some fairly weird dispute at that. The standard theory suggests that the root of “mackerel” in French reflects an old Germanic word for “broker” or “pimp” because it was believed that the mackerel fish either has some odd reproductive habits itself or (I swear I am not making this up) assisted somehow in the reproductive antics of herring.

In any case, the French have been using their equivalent of “mackerel” to mean both the fish and a pimp for several centuries, and “mackerel,” which appeared in the “fish” sense in English in the 14th century, has also been used in the “procurer” sense in English since sometime in the 15th century.

 

 

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