maffick is MW word of the day...

[Burns, Erik]

Merriam Webster's Word of the Day:
 
The Word of the Day for May 17 is: 

maffick \MAFF-ik\ verb 

: to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior 

 <http://cougar.eb.com/sound/m/maffic01.wav>   


Example sentence:
In 1904, author H.H. Munro penned, "Mother, may I go and maffick, / Tear
about and hinder traffic" in his sardonic satire about the South African
War, "Reginald's Peace Poem." 


Did you know?
"Maffick" is an alteration of Mafeking Night, the British celebration of the
lifting of the siege of a British military outpost during the South African
War at the town of Mafikeng (also spelled Mafeking) on May 17, 1900. The
South African War was fought between the British and the Afrikaners, who
were Dutch and Huguenot settlers originally called Boers, over the right to
govern frontier territories. Though the war did not end until 1902, the
lifting of the siege of Mafikeng was a significant victory for the British
because they held out against a larger Afrikaner force for 217 days until
reinforcements could arrive. The rejoicing in British cities on news of the
rescue produced "maffick," a word that was popular for a while, especially
in journalistic writing, but is now less common.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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