The real McCoy

For other uses, see The Real McCoy (disambiguation).

"The real McCoy" is an idiom and metaphor used in much of the English-speaking world to mean "the real thing" or "the genuine article", e.g., "he's the real McCoy". The phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies.

History

The phrase "The real McCoy" may be a corruption of the Scots "The real MacKay", first recorded in 1856 as: "A drappie o' the real MacKay," (A drop of the real MacKay). This appeared in a poem Deil's Hallowe'en published in Glasgow and is widely accepted as the phrase's origin.

In 1881, the expression was used in James S. Bond's The rise and Fall of the 'Union club"; or Boy life in Canada. A character says, "By jingo! yes; so it will be. It's the 'real McCoy,' as Jim Hicks says. Nobody but a devil can find us there."

The expression was used in 1920's flapper slang to describe something that was good or the best, most likely related to its origins in the prohibition era and Bill McCoy's rum-running operation.

The expression has also been associated with Elijah McCoy's oil-drip cup invention (patented in 1872). One theory is that railroad engineers looking to avoid inferior copies would request it by name, inquiring if a locomotive was fitted with 'the real McCoy system". This possible origin is mentioned in Elijah McCoy's biography at the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The original publication of this claim can be traced to an advertisement which appeared in the December 1966 issue of Ebony. The ad, for Old Taylor Bourbon whiskey, ends with the tag line: "...but the most famous legacy McCoy left his country was his name."

Other, less credible, sources include:

• A dispute between two branches of the Scots Clan Mackay over who was rightful leader. Lord Reay headed one branch and he came to be known as the Reay Mackay which migrated to 'the real McCoy'. See Chiefs of Clan Mackay and Lord Reay.
• Joseph McCoy (1837–1915) was mayor of Abilene, Kansas and styled himself 'the real McCoy'.
• A Pennsylvanian named McCoy supplied commercial grade nitroglycerine to safecrackers who deemed it superior to homemade product.
• The Hatfield–McCoy feud

Kid McCoy

In the United States, the phrase became associated with boxer Kid McCoy. Quinion notes that "It looks very much – without being able to say for sure – as though the term was originally the real Mackay, but became converted to the real McCoy in the US, either under the influence of Kid McCoy, or for some other reason." This claim is dubious, however, as Kid McCoy was only nine years old when "the real McCoy" appeared in The Rise and Fall of the "Union club."