Talk:mackerel

RFV discussion: September–October 2017

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mackerel

Sense: (obsolete) A pimp; also, a bawd.

I've been trying to find uses for that specific sense in Google Books, but I'm basically only getting results for the fish sense. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 14:16, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I agree it's hard to find. French maquereau has the same meaning if that helps. Equinox ◑ 17:33, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I think the first 4 of these sources are useful:

• https://books.google.com/books?id=LJY6bDSfx2YC&pg=PA118&q=mackerel
• https://books.google.com/books?id=norQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT268&dq=mackerel
• https://books.google.com/books?id=UNYJAAAAIAAJ&q=mackerel
• https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare/VarPp2-HSO0/QuMJdNOwfisJ
• https://books.google.com/books?id=nN81uyN8WmIC&pg=PA150&dq=mackerel
• https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=rec.puzzles/IBeNfi3ZvKo/oN-rsj2TCScJ
• https://books.google.com/books?id=hTXCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA177&dq=mackerel

I will now start to add them.--Hyperhero (talk) 20:37, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I added 4 citations to mackerel. Are they acceptable? --Hyperhero (talk) 20:53, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. In my opinion, the 2009 and 2012 citations look great. I think the 1980 citation is not quite as good as a real life example of how the word is used, because it's a short title and the context is unavailable to be read in Google Books, but I guess it counts for the three-citation criteria; the word looks attested to me. That said, I think the 2006 citation doesn't count at all, because it looks like a mention rather than use of the word. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 21:22, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

The entire first page of the 1980 article is available for free at doi:10.1177/0032258X8005300305 and the introduction of this article shows that the word "MACKEREL" in the heading refers to a pimp.--Hyperhero (talk) 22:33, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

I see. OK with me then, thanks. --Daniel Carrero (talk) 23:18, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

On a related note, the request for a quotation from Halliwell led me to this:

• 1483, William Caxton, Magnus Cato, quoted in James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, from the Fourteenth Century, vol. 2, publ. by John Russell Smith (1847), page 536.

  […] nyghe his hows dwellyd a maquerel or bawde […]

Full context can be found here, but shouldn't this stuff go under Middle English instead? @Equinox (who added the request) Lingo Bingo Dingo (talk) 11:26, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 22:16, 20 October 2017 (UTC)