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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.2435  Thursday, 19 December 2002

From:           "John Briggs" <john.briggs4@ntlworld.com>
Date:           Wednesday, 18 Dec 2002 15:31:35 -0000
Subject: 13.2426 Re: What's a "meacock"?
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.2426 Re: What's a "meacock"?

Carol Barton wrote:

>For starters, as the URLs below indicate, Al---it's a surname. (See
>assorted variant spellings.) --- Perhaps the pejorative derives from the
>behavior of one of the bearers.

The best suggestion is that these variants are all diminutives (double
diminutives) of Matthew.  (Charles W. Bardsley, "Curiosities of Puritan
Nomenclature", 2nd ed., 1888.)  I have put out a call on the English
Surname List for any later information.

John Briggs

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