Mackam or Macam

[man united]

please could someone tell me the origins of the nickname and wether it belongs to newcastle or sunderland.

Cheers Mark

[Gef]

Actually it's "mackem" and it refers to Sunderland folk. Comes from an old phrase to do with the shipbuilding industry. A quick google search will reveal all.

[Buenchico]

The BBC TV programme 'Balderdash & Piffle' recently investigated the origin and meaning of 'mackem'. As a result of their programme (and contributions from viewers) the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary were forced to amend their entry for 'mackem'.

The draft revised, full OED definition of 'mackem' is here:
http://www.oed.com/bbcwords/mackem-new.html

Chris

[dilf]

im a mackem, its to do with the sunderland shipbuilders way of saying we make them and they take them refering to the ships they built- we mackem they tackem
funnily enough i never heard the name until the shipyards closed in the late seventies early eighties and half my family worked there. so i personaly beleive its a knickname used more by the dirty mags of newcastle [named after their teenage boys reading material that looks like it has been dropped in a puddle] as they would pronounce the phrase correctly
they say doon the toon though and thats daft

[dilf]

unless you spelt it wrang and meant mackaw or macaw in that case i wouldnt know i dont know many parrotts and most of the ones i do know are parakeets

is it parrotts or parotts?

[Sophie_Alexandra]

Mackem belongs to the people of Sunderland, just as Geordie belongs to Newcastle. I, myself, am a Mackem. I'm from Sunderland. The name comes from the shipyards when people made ships in Sunderland. The motto of the workers was "We Mackem and You Tackem" which means "We make them, you take them" meaning workers made the ships and others took them.