McWords
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A McWord is a word that has had the prefix Mc attached to represent an association with The McDonald's restaurant chain. McDonald's itself initiated the practice and still uses the "Mc" prefix to create new brands associated with the chain's McDonald's brand name. Persons and groups have also used the Mc prefix in a usually negative fashion to indicate that something has qualities similar to the McDonald's chain.
McDonald's products and marketing terms with the Mc prefix include:
- Egg McMuffin
- McCafé
- McChicken
- Chicken McNuggets
- McDonaldland
- McDrive
- McFlexible
- McFlurry
- McGourmet
- McGriddle
- McInternet - In the United States, a free Wi-Fi service in some McDonalds Restaurants. In Venezuela, it is an Internet cafe service offered in some very limited McDonald's Restaurants.
- McOz - A hamburger in Australia featuring local additions of beetroot and fried onion
- McRib
- McShake
- Mayor McCheese
- Ronald McDonald
- McComplex, food-processing supplier for McDonalds in Russia and CIS
and various local McDonald's menu items.
[edit] McWords not used by McDonald's
By analogy, other parties use the prefix also, referring to McDonald's and its associated cultural effects. Thus new words, called McWords, are created. Most of these terms have a negative connotation.
- McChurch - a megachurch
- McDojo - A dojo considered by some to be neither technically nor spiritually authentic. Generally they hold large classes and require legalistic contracts, and have gimmicks like 'Black Belt in a year' programs.
- McDonaldization - Term used in George Ritzer's thesis
- McJesus - Types of Christianity that are prepared and sold to a mass market and therefore de-sanctified
- McJob - A low-paying job in which one serves as an interchangeable cog in a corporate machine; popularised by Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
- McLibel case - A famous libel case in England in which McDonalds won a pyrrhic victory
- McMansion - Quickly-built mansions, as much alike as McDonald's hamburgers. (Common in affluent parts of Northern Virginia including McLean, Virginia)
- McSlum - Areas where people live in third world conditions in comparatively wealthy nations, predominantly in USA. The McWord here refers to the uniformity and omnipresence of these slums, much like McDonalds.
- McMedicine - A healthcare industry practice that is thought to overdiagnose and overprescribe medication for profit or convenience
- McSlave - One who does a McJob
- McMurder or McMassacre - The 1984 McDonald's massacre, in which James Oliver Huberty killed 21 customers and wounded 19 others. Also a website mcmurder.com that chronicles this and other murders that have happened at McDonalds restaurants.
- McPaper (or McNews)- A newspaper that is considered manufactured and 'for the masses' because of its simplistic prose style and flashy use of colors. Typically used in reference to USA Today.
- McKids - a group of children that are obese, presumably from eating too much fast food.
- McOndo - a Latin American literary movement. The name is a spoof on the fictional village of Macondo.
- McPomm - a pejorative German term describing Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), presumably implying Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania became capitalistic after the end of socialistic East Germany.
- McStomachache/McGurgles/McBrick/McTwitches/McSweats/McGas - in a scene from the movie Super Size Me in which Morgan Spurlock vomited up a Super Size Meal from McDonald's.
- McTheatre - term to describe big-budget musicals that are high on hype and special effects, but low on musical and artistic quality.
- McWorld - The globalized Earth; also, a McDonald's commercial campaign of the 1990's depicting a world in which kids rule.
- McPub - disparaging term for British pub chains
- McRomance - The act of dining with one's love interest in a McDonald's restaurant, as alluded to in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
