"real McCoy" meaning in English

See real McCoy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-real McCoy.ogg Forms: the real McCoy [canonical]
Etymology: Corruption of Scots the real MacKay, this latter attested in 1856 as “A drappie o’ the real MacKay” (A drop of the real MacKay). How “MacKay” became “McCoy” is unclear; first attested in the form “McCoy” in the US in 1908. The term is the subject of many folk etymologies, discussed at the Wikipedia entry. Etymology templates: {{der|en|sco|real MacKay|the real MacKay}} Scots the real MacKay Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=the real McCoy}} the real McCoy
  1. (idiomatic) The genuine thing, neither a substitute nor an imitation. Wikipedia link: Scottish National Dictionary Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: real deal, real McKoy, real Macoy Translations (Translations): autentyk [masculine] (Polish)

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "sco",
        "3": "real MacKay",
        "4": "the real MacKay"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots the real MacKay",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Corruption of Scots the real MacKay, this latter attested in 1856 as “A drappie o’ the real MacKay” (A drop of the real MacKay). How “MacKay” became “McCoy” is unclear; first attested in the form “McCoy” in the US in 1908.\nThe term is the subject of many folk etymologies, discussed at the Wikipedia entry.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the real McCoy",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the real McCoy"
      },
      "expansion": "the real McCoy",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English positive polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Positive polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The genuine thing, neither a substitute nor an imitation."
      ],
      "id": "en-real_McCoy-en-noun-VSlYMg99",
      "links": [
        [
          "genuine",
          "genuine"
        ],
        [
          "substitute",
          "substitute"
        ],
        [
          "imitation",
          "imitation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The genuine thing, neither a substitute nor an imitation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "real deal"
        },
        {
          "word": "real McKoy"
        },
        {
          "word": "real Macoy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "autentyk"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Scottish National Dictionary"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-real McCoy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "real McCoy"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "sco",
        "3": "real MacKay",
        "4": "the real MacKay"
      },
      "expansion": "Scots the real MacKay",
      "name": "der"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Corruption of Scots the real MacKay, this latter attested in 1856 as “A drappie o’ the real MacKay” (A drop of the real MacKay). How “MacKay” became “McCoy” is unclear; first attested in the form “McCoy” in the US in 1908.\nThe term is the subject of many folk etymologies, discussed at the Wikipedia entry.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "the real McCoy",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "noun",
        "head": "the real McCoy"
      },
      "expansion": "the real McCoy",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English positive polarity items",
        "English terms derived from Scots",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The genuine thing, neither a substitute nor an imitation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "genuine",
          "genuine"
        ],
        [
          "substitute",
          "substitute"
        ],
        [
          "imitation",
          "imitation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) The genuine thing, neither a substitute nor an imitation."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "real deal"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Scottish National Dictionary"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-real McCoy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/9/91/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/En-au-real_McCoy.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "real McKoy"
    },
    {
      "word": "real Macoy"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "autentyk"
    }
  ],
  "word": "real McCoy"
}

Download raw JSONL data for real McCoy meaning in English (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.