McDonald's petitions Oxford English Dictionary to change definition of "McJob"

[BurtWorm]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6683365.stm

The Oxford English Dictionary currently describes a McJob as "an unstimulating low-paid job with few prospects".

McDonald's says this definition is now "out of date and insulting", and claims a survey found that 69% of the UK population agree it needs updating.

The campaign by the firm's UK arm is backed by the government's skills envoy and former CBI boss Sir Digby Jones.

'Making a stand'

"The current definition is extremely insulting to the 67,000 people who work for us within the UK," said McDonald's senior vice president David Fairhurst.

"It is also insulting for everyone else who works in the wider restaurant and tourism sectors.

"It is time for us now to make a stand and get the Oxford English Dictionary to change the definition."

...

Last year McDonald's tried to improve the image of its employment opportunities with the slogan: "McProspects - over half of our executive team started in our restaurants. Not bad for a McJob."

[VoltaireAmericain]

1. Balk

I think its a stupid term and why on earth would they have put it in there anyway? Shouldn't newly defined words have a commonplace in today's language? For example, when is the last time you heard someone say, "I went to apply for a McJob today!"

It's a modern-day combination of two words put together as slang. It should not be considered as a word. For things like this, Merriam-Webster's has an open dictionary where users of the web-site may submit their own words and definitions.

[BurtWorm]

4. OED is a dictionary on historical principles

meaning it tracks words that appear in all kinds of literature, giving dated examples of its uses so if a reader encounters it in text they know the date of they can gauge the meaning based on how the examples of it from that time appear in the definition. While McJob is not in common usage now, it has been used in certain contexts--usually journalistic--since the 1980s. You can imagine someone coming across the word while researching the 1980s maybe 50 years from now (should we be so lucky to still exist then) and not knowing what it means. The definition is in the OED for that kind of researcher's benefit.

That's why it's ludicrous of McDonald's to try to petition OED to put a McHappy face on the definition.

[Richard Steele]

10. They put it there because it's a WORD.

A word with a commonly-understood meaning.
I knew EXACTLY what it meant the first time I heard it,
and most likely so did you.

No, I may not hear it every day, but I've heard it used
DOZENS of times...and always with the same meaning.

BTW- welcome to DU! :hi:

[newyawker99]

16. Hi VoltaireAmerican!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Book Lover]

2. "McDonald's petitions God to change reality"

I can easily imagine the derisive laughter at OUP offices about this.

[drm604]

3. This is frigging ridiculous. Corporations trying to mold reality to meet their needs.

What is it with some people and reality? If they don't like it, they lie about it. A dictionary is based on how people use language. If people use the word "McJob" to mean "an un-stimulating low-paid job with few prospects" then that's how they use it. That's certainly what I take it to mean when I hear people use it. Does McDonald's actually believe that putting a fake definition in a dictionary will change how people use a word?

Don't like the idea of global warming? lie about it.

Don't like the way a word is used? petition a dictionary to change the meaning. :crazy:

The Oxford English Dictionary is not a corporate propaganda tool. If they bow to this then there will be no end to the petitions.

They'll demand that the definition of "liberal" be changed to "communist".

They'll demand that the definition of "evolution" be changed to "satanist plot to undermine mom and apple pie".

They'll demand that the definition of "tax" be changed to "armed robbery".

This is just stupid.

On Edit: What do they want to change it to? I don't see that anywhere in the article. It seems like that would be a big part of the story.

[BurtWorm]

6. McJob: McPosition one can make a great McCareer at.

:shrug:

[muntrv]

5. Aaaaaaawwww poor mickey dees!!

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

[Canuckistanian]

7. Not bloody likely

It's a common term in our language. And the researchers at OED will have NO problem finding citations.

And BTW, I'd like to see this "poll" and who exactly commissioned it?

[BlooInBloo]

8. Um, the OED is cumulative, not last-known-good.

[Cobalt-60]

9. too late, mcBitch

It's in general usage around the world.
You ordered the paper hat- now wear it.

[supernova]

11. I hope the OED tell 'em

to take a McHike!

[Richard Steele]

12. Lol!

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Those who live by the McSword die by the McSword

If they hadn't been so keen on putting 'Mc' in front of everything, people wouldn't take the piss using it. Also in the OED:

Mc-, comb. form

2. Chiefly somewhat depreciative. a. Prefixed chiefly to nouns to form nouns with the sense ‘something that is of mass appeal, a standardized or bland variety of or alternative to {emem}’. Cf. also MCJOB n.
1982 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 17 Oct. I. 63 Some dismiss the newspaper , with its flood of short articles, as journalistic junk food, or ‘McPaper’. 1985 Washington Post 13 Apr. 12 ‘Surgicenters’ and ‘quick care centers’ that have sprung up in business districts and shopping centers. There are 2,500 such miniclinics{em}sometimes dubbed ‘McDoctors’{em}today. 1994 Guardian 5 Aug. II. 7/5 When you want a real policeman..a McPoliceman just won't fill the gap. McPolicemen without full powers..are the latest in a long line of McPolicies with which we are already swamped. 1995 Weekend Austral. 24-5 June (Review Suppl.) 3/4 Anne..is a Hollywood studio executive whose boyfriend has tried to get her to read Men Are From Mars: ‘I call it McTherapy... It's quick and easy and for the masses.’ 2000 N.Y. Times 4 May B1/5 Why best-selling authors become producers of McThrillers.

b. McMansion n. U.S. colloq., a modern house built on a large and imposing scale, but regarded as ostentatious and lacking architectural integrity.
1990 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 15 July F1 The move-up homes trumpeted by builders are ‘McMansions{em}a very pale version of the American dream,’ he said. 1999 Town & Country Oct. 230/2 The house was a charming Thirties California ranch of the sort that too often gets torn down to make room for a McMansion.


McDonaldization, n.

The spread of influence of the type of efficient, standardized, corporate business or culture regarded as epitomized by the McDonald's restaurant chain. More widely: the spread of the influence of American culture.
1975 J. HIGHTOWER Eat your Heart Out x. 237 The McDonaldization of America... Not only are hams becoming uniformly bland, but so is American taste. Not only are local beers disappearing, but so is local identity. 1977 Business Week 18 Apr. 83/1 Ralph Nader predicted that an EFT network ‘would result in the McDonaldization of the banking industry’. 1989 Managem. Today July 69/2 The key, in Heinz terms, is ‘the McDonaldisation of Asia’, or put a little more elegantly, the acceptance of Western eating habits as prosperity in the continent grows. 1991 C. PAGLIA in Arion Spring 186 The McDonaldization of the profession means standardized, interchangeable outlets, briskly efficient academics who think alike and sound alike. 1994 Daily Tel. 16 Mar. 23/6 In both papers, there is much anxious justification of the ‘McDonaldisation’ of Prague. It's not only a matter of McDonald's (there are two) but of K. Mart.


McDonald's, n.

allusively. Any service, organization, etc., likened to the McDonald's chain in some respect, esp. in operating in a highly efficient, standardized manner.
1982 Peace News 6 Aug. 14/2 All the most common types of therapy available today are discussed, ranging from traditional psychoanalysis to EST, ‘the McDonalds of therapy’. 1990 UNIX Jrnl. 2 VII. 8/2 This technology is going to transform today's reseller channels into well-organized machines that will be the McDonald's of information services by the middle of the decade. 1992 Economist 8 Aug. 64/1 KinderCare has its critics. Teachers..say it is a McDonald's of pre-school education, providing unimaginative guarding of latch-key kids rather than nursery schooling. 2000 M. LEWIS New New Thing 73 The company that built the first information appliance would sit in the middle of all human communication; it would be the McDonald's of information.


But mainly, this is McPR - a cheap way of getting your corporate name in the news, while apparently "standing up for your employees". They know the OED won't change the definition, unless people stop using it altogether for several years, and then it will be marked obsolete. But that will probably only happen when McDonald's is obsolete too. Similar phrases, like "to go postal", are in the OED too.

[BurtWorm]

14. McMarketing.

As if McDonald's needs ANY publicity. :eyes:

[Javaman]

19. Or...

Those who live by the Mcnugget die by the Mcnugget.

[baby_mouse]

15. Usage is tyrannical, McDonalds.

If you want the dictionary to change the meaning of the word you have to change the populace's understanding of the word first.

This is a fucking dangerously slippery slope, people. Really fucking dangerous.

[drm604]

17. You mean McDangerous.

It's McFucking McDangerous.

[Javaman]

20. exactly, once a word is part of the nomenclature, it's part of society. nt

[Javaman]

18. Just in from the ministry of language aka newspeak...

any words that have "Mc" in the front of them are useless and demeaning to the population. How ever this does not include the McDonald's corporation or any of McDonald's products.

That is all now get back to your McJob and shut up.