Re: Translate to English (UK)

Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:
Vinny Burgoo wrote:

Is a Google improvement imminent?

[google is your friend]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSocial

OpenSocial was rumored to be part of a larger social networking
initiative by Google code-named "Maka-Maka", which is defined as
meaning "intimate friend with whom one is on terms of receiving
and giving freely" in Hawaiian. [1]

Have you noticed something new or different on your iGoogle page?

[1] "Maka-Maka" is to an extent reminiscent in sound and meaning of
the BrE informal "mucker":

{Orig. Mil.} A close companion or friend; a person with whom one
regularly socializes or teams up (cf. to muck in at MUCK v.1
Phrasal verbs)

to muck in

intr. colloq. Originally: to share rations. Later: to share food,
facilities, etc. (with); to tuck in to food; to participate or
cooperate on equal terms with others in a task, hardship, etc.

It could also be from Chinook Jargon "muckamuck", food, eat. "High
muckamuck", spelled "hayo makamak" by the online AHD, which also
records "hiyou Muckamuck", means "plenty to eat". The sense of
"important person" came shortly after its first recorded English use
in the original meaning. I suppose the sound, and the first word's
resemblance to "high" must have influenced the shift, but perhaps the
second meaning also comes from potlatch, the West-coast Indian custom
of asserting social status at lavish feasts. Hiyu muckamuck, skookum
tillicum.

All there was between the Hawaiians and the Chinook (et al.) was a
stretch of water, and they were good sailors.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/76/H0197600.html


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