mchination.html - noun
Also written MacGuffin (Lifestyle and Leisure) A device used in a film or work of fiction whereby some fact or activity seems all-important to the characters involved while actually only providing an excuse for the plot as a whole; the thing which absorbs the characters and misleads the audience in this way. Etymology : The word was invented by the film director Alfred Hitchcock in the thirties in relation to the film The Thirty-Nine Steps; when interviewed by Fran

ois Truffaut in the sixties, he claimed that he always liked to use a McGuffin in his films: The theft of secret documents was the original MacGuffin. So the 'MacGuffin' is the term we use to cover all that sort of thing: to steal plans or documents, or discover a secret, it doesn't matter what it is. And the logicians are wrong in trying to figure out the truth of a MacGuffin, since it's beside the point. The only thing that really matters is that in the picture the plans, documents, or secrets must seem to be of vital importance to the characters. To me, the narrator, they're of no importance whatsoever . The word itself may be derived from guff; it was apparently borrowed from a Scottish joke involving a man carrying a mysterious parcel on a train; but the joke may also be a McGuffin in its own right. History and Usage: Although Hitchcock had been using the word for several decades, McGuffin did not start to appear more widely in film criticism until the early eighties, when it suddenly acquired a more general currency, and was used to refer to the underlying impetus for the plot of novels and television series as well as horror films. There's a funny scene in which Wilder , looking for a gold coin--the film's McGuffin--ventures into the bathroom of a beautiful woman villain and encounters her in the shower. Sydney Morning Herald 27 July 1989, p.
14 Maddeningly, neither the deal nor its unmaking are anything but McGuffins in this misfiring comedy. Los Angeles Times 22 June 1990, section F, p. 6

mchination.html - In the UK, a person who attends a court of law to help and advise one of the parties to the case. Often used attributively, especially in McKenzie friend or McKenzie man. Etymology: Named after the case of McKenzie v. McKenzie (1970), in which the precedent was set for a non-professional helper to be allowed in court. History and Usage: According to the Law Reports on the case of McKenzie v. McKenzie, Any person, whether he be a professional man or not, may attend a trial as a friend of either party, may take notes, and may quietly make suggestions and give advice to that party. During the seventies these people were generally called McKenzies or McKenzie men in legal journals and the like, but the term had little currency outside legal sources. In the early eighties greater use was made of the precedent by people who wanted to do without legal representation or who could not afford it, and the terms started to appear in the newspapers; by the end of the decade the preferred form in this more popular usage was clearly McKenzie friend. Mr Dave Nellist, MP for Coventry South-East, said he intended to appear before Coventry magistrates as a 'McKenzie friend'. Daily Telegraph 24 July 1990, p. 2

mchination.html - abbr.
1 Master of Ceremonies.
2 (in the UK) Military Cross.
3 (in the US) Member of Congress.

mchination.html - abbr.
megacycle(s).

mchination.html - abbr.
megacycles per second.

mchination.html - abbr.
Marylebone Cricket Club.