Mackem

According to the current entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest occurrence of the word Mackem or Mak’em in print was in 1988.

[5] However, as evidenced by the attached news articles, the word Mak’em (or Mackem) has been much in evidence for a great many years prior to 1988.

Indeed, one of the articles attached dates to 1929.It has been argued that the expressions date back to the height of Sunderland's shipbuilding history, as the shipwrights would make the ships, then the maritime pilots and tugboat captains would take them down the River Wear to the sea – the shipyards and port authority being the most conspicuous employers in Sunderland.

[8] The phrase "we still tak'em and mak'em" was found in a sporting context in 1973 in reference to Sunderland Cricket & Rugby Football Club.

The name "Mak'em" may refer to the Wearside shipyard workers, who during World War II were brought into shipbuilding and regarded as taking work away from the Geordies on Tyneside.

The poor auld wives o’ the north side disn’t knaw what for te de, For they dare not come to see their husbands when they come to the Quay; They’re feared o’ their sel’s, and their infants, tee, For this roguish fellow they call Spottee.

But now he’s gane away unto the sea-side, Where mony a ane wishes he may be weshed away wi’ the tide, For if Floutter’s flood come, as it us’d for te de,

As in Scots and other Northumbrian dialects the definite article is used in a wider range of contexts than in standard English, including kinship terms, names of institutions, temporal expressions, illnesses, and even numbers.