It is rapidly becoming apparent that the surname “McGee” has achieved a definable meaning in colloquial English, as a post-modifier. I, Joshua McGee (recreational lexicographer; possessor of the surname “McGee” since 1978; and owner/maintainer/founder [1999 - present] of mcgees.org [website and related merchandising] wherein the token “McGee” appears several sigma beyond its incidence in the average website), assert that I am a competent authority on the usage of “McGee”. I offer the following:
The construction is “Noun/Adjective McGee”, where Noun/Adjective is capitalized to construct a standard Western two-token name, fancifully consisting of a putative “given” name and the “surname” McGee. In such contexts, the resulting name is applied to an individual, and the meaning is roughly “epitomizing noun/adjective in an unflattering manner”, or the closely-related “tending to be identified or recognized as noun/adjective to such a degree that nothing else is apparent or relevant.”
Examples:
- Tits McGee: “A nickname for a woman with good sized boobs.” (appears in Urban Dictionary [retrieved 2009]; similar colloquial usage in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy [film] [released 2004])
- Spandex McGee: (presum.) “A woman who wears a large amount of the fabric Spandex unflatteringly” (appears in Twitter [website], user overfab [posted 2009])
- Fatass McGee (uncapitalized in original): (presum.) “An extremely obese individual / An individual about whom only obesity is noticed” (appears in Twitter [website], user theazn1 [posted 2009])
It should be noted that:
- the use of “Fatty McGee” as a generic term for an individual presumably meeting certain (currently unknown) characteristics in the work of monologist and comedian Jon Stewart (b. 1969) is incompletely understood, and is deserving (in this editor’s opinion) of further study, and that
- historic application of this to the fictional character “Fibber McGee” in Fibber McGee and Molly (radio and [later] television program airing prior to 1961) leading to the conclusion the character was so named because he “prevaricates to an unseemly degree” or “prevaricates in such a fashion that little else is noticed”, seems, with current data, unwarranted
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