the real McCoy
Meaning: the genuine article; something authentic and high quality.
Language: English
Literally: the real McCoy
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Genuinely unresolved, with four candidates and an awkward chronology. The best-known story credits the boxer Norman Selby, who fought as Kid McCoy in the 1890s and supposedly settled a skeptic's doubts about his identity with a demonstration. Others credit Elijah McCoy, the Black Canadian-American inventor whose locomotive lubricators were widely imitated, or Bill McCoy, a Prohibition-era rum-runner known for not watering his liquor. The difficulty for all three is that a Scottish form is attested earlier: G. Mackay and Company of Edinburgh advertised its whisky as the real Mackay from around 1870, and the spelling shift from Mackay to McCoy would be an ordinary piece of transatlantic drift. That does not settle it either, but it does mean the boxing story cannot be the origin, whatever it did for the phrase's popularity.
More idioms — Daily Life
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- Die Kirche im Dorf lassen — To keep things in proportion and not get carried away.
- Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof — Life is not all fun and games; expect hardship.
- Estar de Rodríguez — To be a husband left working in town while the family is on holiday.
More English idioms
- cry over spilled milk — to regret something past; useless to grieve over unchangeable events.
- white as a sheet — extremely pale; shocked or frightened.
- go pear-shaped — to go wrong; to develop badly; to become misshapen.
- hard pill to swallow — difficult to accept; unpleasant truth or reality.
- be on cloud nine — to be extremely happy; in a state of bliss.
- sharp as a tack — intelligent; quick-witted; keen-minded.
From our proverbs
- Turn your wounds into wisdom — Our deepest pains and failures can become our greatest teachers and sources of strength.
- He who dares, wins — Bold action and courage are rewarded; timidity leads to missed opportunities.
- Know thyself — Self-knowledge and self-awareness are the foundation of all wisdom and right living.