The Real McCoy

SEC guidance on plain EnglishIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Plain English Drafting Metaphor

Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Disappointingly, this expression does not derive from a Star Trek episode in which they cloned the starship's doctor.

Common consensus has it as a bastardisation of McKay, surviving from anonymous, over-apostrophised Glaswegian poem The De'il's Hallowe' en, which calls out "A drappie o' the real MacKay".

McKay, we suppose was some kind of whiskey.

So "the real McCoy" wasn't a McCoy at all. Come in Alannis Morissette - that is ironic.

The Real McCoy

See also