Mcluhan

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A Canadian scholar of communication theory, famous for the claim that the medium is the message and for studying how media shape society
2. The surname of a Canadian thinker who analyzed how electronic media reshape human perception and culture
3. Name of the Canadian philosopher of communication best known for coining the global village and the phrase the medium is the message

Etymology: Marshall McLuhan's surname is a patronymic from Gaelic, "Mac Lughaidh," meaning "son of Lughaidh." Lughaidh was an old Gaelic personal name, and the "Mac" prefix marks the bearer as a descendant of a man so called. Many Scottish and Irish surnames took this form as family names became fixed, so the name records lineage rather than a trade or a place. The name has no connection to the vocabulary McLuhan made famous. "Global village" and "the medium is the message" are his own coinages built from ordinary English words, while the surname was inherited from his family.