McWords
Encyclopedia
A McWord is a word containing the prefix Mc-, derived from the first syllable of the name of the McDonald's
restaurant chain. Words of this nature are either official marketing terms of the chain (such as McNugget), or are neologisms designed to evoke pejorative associations with the restaurant chain or fast food in general, often for qualities of cheapness, inauthenticity, or the rapidity and ease of manufacture. They are also used in non-consumerism contexts as a pejorative
for heavily commercialized or globalized
things and concepts.
McWords include:
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
restaurant chain. Words of this nature are either official marketing terms of the chain (such as McNugget), or are neologisms designed to evoke pejorative associations with the restaurant chain or fast food in general, often for qualities of cheapness, inauthenticity, or the rapidity and ease of manufacture. They are also used in non-consumerism contexts as a pejorative
Pejorative
Pejoratives , including name slurs, are words or grammatical forms that connote negativity and express contempt or distaste. A term can be regarded as pejorative in some social groups but not in others, e.g., hacker is a term used for computer criminals as well as quick and clever computer experts...
for heavily commercialized or globalized
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
things and concepts.
McWords include:
- Many McDonald's products and brandBrandThe American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
ing concepts, including: - Mayor McCheese
- McCaféMcCaféMcCafé is a coffee-house-style food and drink chain, owned by McDonald's. Created and launched in Melbourne, Australia in 1993 by McDonald's Licensee Ann Brown, the chain reflects a consumer trend towards espresso coffees....
- McDonaldlandMcDonaldlandMcDonaldland was a fantasy world used in the marketing for McDonald's restaurants. It was based on the "total concept and feel" of Sid and Marty Krofft's H.R. Pufnstuf television program. McDonaldland was inhabited by Ronald McDonald and other characters...
- McInternet – A free Wi-FiWi-FiWi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
service in some U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
McDonald's restaurants. In VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, it is an Internet cafeInternet cafeAn Internet café or cybercafé is a place which provides internet access to the public, usually for a fee. These businesses usually provide snacks and drinks, hence the café in the name...
service offered in several McDonald's restaurants. - McState – The McDonald's job and career search service.
- McWorldMcWorldMcWorld is a term used to describe the spreading of McDonald's restaurants throughout the world as the result of globalization, and more generally to describe the effects of international McDonaldization of services and commercialization of goods as an element of globalization as a whole...
– The term was used in a mid-1990s McDonald's advertising campaign depicting a world ruled by children. It is also used in a critical way to emphasize the deprecation of local culture in favor of a global culture prescribed by large corporations. - McChurchMcChurchMcChurch is a McWord used to suggest that a particular church has a strong element of entertainment, consumerism or commercialism which obscures its religious aspects. The term is sometimes used as a derogatory synonym for megachurch....
– A megachurchMegachurchA megachurch is a church having 2,000 or more in average weekend attendance. The Hartford Institute's database lists more than 1,300 such Protestant churches in the United States. According to that data, approximately 50 churches on the list have attendance ranging from 10,000 to 47,000...
. - McDonaldizationMcDonaldizationMcDonaldization is a term used by sociologist George Ritzer in his book The McDonaldization of Society . He explains it occurs when a culture possesses the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. McDonaldization is a reconceptualization of rationalization, or moving from traditional to rational...
– the process by which a society takes on the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. - McJobMcJobMcJob is slang for a low-paying, low-prestige dead end job that requires few skills and offers very little chance of intracompany advancement...
– A low-paying job in which one serves as an interchangeable cog in a corporate machine; originally appearing in an article in The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
in 1986 and later popularised by Douglas CouplandDouglas CouplandDouglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist. His fiction is complemented by recognized works in design and visual art arising from his early formal training. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, popularized terms such as McJob and...
's novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated CultureGeneration X: Tales for an Accelerated CultureGeneration X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, published by St. Martin's Press in 1991, is the first novel by Douglas Coupland. The novel popularized the term Generation X, which refers to Americans and Canadians who reached adulthood in the late 1980s...
. - McMansionMcMansionMcMansion is a pejorative term for a large new house which is judged as pretentious, tasteless, or badly designed for its neighborhood. Alternately, a McMansion is a large house in a sub-division of similarly large houses, which all seem mass produced and lacking distinguishing characteristics, and...
– Quickly-built mansionMansionA mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
s; a group of large houses built in the same style in the same area. - McOndoMcOndoMcOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks from the dominant Magical Realism mode of narration, and counters it with the strong, ideologic associations of the cultural and narrative languages of the mass communications media, and with the modernity of urban living; the experience of...
– A Latin American literary movement. The name is a spoof on the fictional village of MacondoMacondoFor the oil spill, see: Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosionMacondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel García Márquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is the home town of the Buendía family.-Aracataca:...
. - 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 TodayUSA TodayUSA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
. - McDojo – A martial arts school that teaches a less than average version of a martial arts, often charging high fees for it.
See also
- CocacolonizationCocacolonizationCocacolonization is a term that refers to globalization or cultural colonization. It is a portmanteau of the name of the multinational soft drink maker Coca-Cola and the word colonization....
- DisneyficationDisneyficationDisneyfication is a term which describes the transformation of something, usually society at large, to resemble The Walt Disney Company's theme parks. The latter term appears in Sharon Zukin's book, The Cultures of Cities , and was popularized by Alan Bryman in a 2004 book, The Disneyization of...
- McDonald's Restaurants v Morris & Steel (known as the "McLibel case")
- WalmartingWalmartingWalmarting is a neologism referring to U.S. discount department store Walmart with three meanings.* The first use is similar to the concept of globalization and is used pejoratively by critics and neutrally by businesses seeking to emulate Wal-Mart's success....