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To: Ish who wrote (55358)	8/29/2000 12:06:53 AM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I've heard the phrase had to do with a piece of gear called "the McCoy Oiler", that automatically lubricated machinery back in the late 1800s. The McCoy design was much superior to its imitators and mechanics would always check to see if a machine used 'the Real McCoy'.

To: Ish who wrote (55358)	8/29/2000 12:13:43 AM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

One version of "The Real McCoy: zapme.com

To: Ish who wrote (55358)	8/29/2000 1:51:57 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

"Word Detective" votes for your version of "The Real McCoy," Ish, ranking it as the top contender of ten! You are vindicated! And here I thought you made it up! <g> Actually, I leaned to the version in the paragraph immediately preceding the endorsement (i.e., McCoy=Macao). Has a really contemporary ring to it. Dear Word Detective: What are the origins of the term "The Real McCoy"? -- Bruce Crilly, via the internet. The short answer is that nobody knows for sure where the phrase "the real McCoy," meaning "the real thing" or "the genuine article" came from. We do know that it first appeared in the exact form "real McCoy" around 1922 (although a letter written by author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883 uses the phrase "real MacKay," which may or may not have anything to do with our modern "real McCoy"). There are an unusual number of theories about the origins of "the real McCoy," and we have space here to touch on only a few. For a detailed explanation of the top ten "real McCoy" theories, I recommend the excellent book "Devious Derivations," by Hugh Rawson (Crown, 1994). Most people probably assume that "the real McCoy" has something to do with the famous Hatfield-McCoy family feud that enlivened the West Virginia-Kentucky border in the 1880s, but there's no solid evidence of such a connection. Another popular theory traces "the real McCoy" to the prizefighter Norman Selby (1873-1940), who boxed under the name "Kid McCoy." According to legend, McCoy was bedeviled by imitators, and so took great pains to assure audiences at his bouts that he was indeed "the real McCoy." But while Kid McCoy certainly existed, there is no solid evidence connecting him and the phrase "the real McCoy." Yet another theory asserts that "McCoy" was originally "Macao," and that "the real McCoy" meant pure heroin imported from that Chinese island. Again, there is a lack of evidence to support this theory. Since my guess is as good as anyone's in this case, I'm going to vote for the theory that traces the phrase to a bootlegger named Bill McCoy, who during Prohibition became very popular smuggling Canadian liquor into the U.S. To a nation reduced to drinking gin made in bathtubs, McCoy's genuine booze must certainly have fit the definition of, and may well have become known as, "the real McCoy." word-detective.com