McDonald's upset over new dictionary word (1 Viewer)

[Carl Miller]

They didn't invent the term. It has been in usage for some time now. The term McJob has generally been used to denote boring work of low stature, low pay, low benefits, and low opportunity. Their definition of the term is accurate.

I know that, but I never heard of it before this. As for the rest, I understand what you're saying, but I also understand why McDonalds would object to the term, and I wouldn't blame a McDonalds employee for objecting to it either. Not that it's a big deal by any means, but it seems unnecessary to me.

 

[Ken Chan]

Some of the responses here illustrate a general problem: people are often under the notion that they're part of some silent majority. Just because they haven't heard of the term must mean it was made up.

Well, I have heard of the term. Do I think it's common? How the hell would I know? I certainly don't hear it much. But it definitely is out there, and I didn't make it up. The lexicographers, who didn't make up the word either, but whose job it is to make those sorts of judgements, decided it was common enough to put it in. Is it insulting? I suppose it is. But all McDonald's did was bring more attention to it. Otherwise it would just be one of the thousands of other words in the dictionary that most people have never heard.

[rant]On many issues, people think there are two sides, and that they are on the more popular right side, and that automatically means that everyone else should just fall in line. But sometimes the truth of the matter is that instead of some 60/40 split, there's more of a 30/30/30/10 split, and you can't resolve something by trying to paper over the differences.[/rant]

I like that bit in Say Anything where Ione Skye's character would put a mark next to each word in the dictionary that was new to her, and the pages were filled with marks.

//Ken

PS: I didn't know that "rant" was an actual formatting code....

 

[Eric_L]

I need a mcNap now

 

[Edwin-S]

Is it the regular low-level McDonalds employee that is complaining about the inclusion of McJob in the dictionary. No. Most of them would probably agree that the definition fits.

The ones who are complaining are the upper management. Why? Is it because they feel guilty about something? Like the fact that they they exploit hundreds of thousands of hard working people every day? It must rankle that their exploitative business model has been crowned with the ultimate compliment to their managerial prowess....The McJob! Keep up the good work M-W. Anything that pisses off a McDonald executive is a good thing. In fact, anything that pisses off any executive is a job well done.

 

[Neil M]

Hey, McDonald's should be happy. It could have been alot worse. They could have defined McBlowJob. That's when Ronald McDonald....oh nevermind.

 

[Marc_Sulinski]

Witness McMansion or McMovie, both of which I've heard on numerous occasions.

I think most of you are missing the point of the word. A job is not considered a McJob because it is equivalent to working at McDonald's, but because it is of relative quality to McDonald's food. For example, look at the words in the quote above. A McMovie has nothing to do with a movie shown at McDonald's, it just means that it is of relatively poor quality, though probably inexpensive.

 

[TedE]

A McMovie has nothing to do with a movie shown at McDonald's, it just means that it is of relatively poor quality, though probably inexpensive.

I tend to think of it as more synonomous with "generic", especially things that lack originality, but not necessarily poor quality or inexpensive. McMansions are very nice houses, it's just that they look exactly the same as all the other nice houses on the street. They are cookie-cutter. Same with McMovie, a film that lacks many original plot points and is full of cliches. A really expensive SFX production may have stock characters inserted into a cookie-cutter script. Voila! McMovie.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Around here the people that work in McD's can barely speak english, and I'm not talking about english as a second language people.

"Wha da yah have?" but slur it all together as one word.

Whadayahave?

So I agree with this definition for Atlanta, McD's employees fit that definition to a T.

 

[Marc_Sulinski]

I tend to think of it as more synonomous with "generic", especially things that lack originality, but not necessarily poor quality or inexpensive. McMansions are very nice houses, it's just that they look exactly the same as all the other nice houses on the street. They are cookie-cutter. Same with McMovie, a film that lacks many original plot points and is full of cliches. A really expensive SFX production may have stock characters inserted into a cookie-cutter script. Voila! McMovie

This makes more sense to me. So it seems that the general use of the "Mc" prefix is "generic" while the dictionary is defining it as "low paying and dead-end work." While this may be true of a McJob job, it does not seem to capture the essence of the meaning, which would be a generic, cookie-cutter job. Either way, I don't think that anyone who works at McDonald's should feel as if their job is being insulted.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I've seen McJob plenty, including in newspapers (especially when there are article concerning employment issues, particularly for the young and the aged), which is one of the bellwethers for whether it gets put into a dictionary.

I can see why McDonalds is upset. But that's too darn bad for them. Hormel doesn't like the usage of spam to refer to commercial email either but language is too strong a force for a mere corporation to hold back.

 

[Shayne Lebrun]

I've always thought that McDonalds lost a lot of moral weight in decrying the 'McInsertTermHere' trend when they named one of their own food items 'McWrap.'

 

[Brian Perry]

I assume that M-W will include the full origin of the word in the entry, right? I think it's one of the neater features of its dictionary. (One of my favorite creations is for the word gerrymander, which is derived from politican Elbridge Gerry and a salamander.)

 

[MikeDeVincenzo]

Guilt among the Mcdonald's executives?

I doubt it.

I think they're more concerned about an image hit to the brand more than anything else.