† mackelern.

Etymology: < Dutch makelaar < Middle Dutch mākelaer , maeckelaer (compare makrelty n.), closely cognate with Middle Low German mēkeler, mākeler ( > German Makler): further etymology uncertain.Dutch makelen to negotiate (see mackle v.²) was thought to be the etymon as early as W. Sewel Large Dict. Eng. & Dutch (1708) at maakelaar, but is not attested from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German, and is probably a back-formation < the noun. Many still take mākelaer to be ultimately a derivative of māken make v.¹, while others reject this hypothesis; the suggestion that mākelaer may be from Old French makerel mackerel n.¹ faces the same difficulty as the more common suggestion of the reverse relationship between the two words, namely that the popular tradition concerning the mackerel on which it rests is not attested before the 19th cent. (see discussion s.v. mackerel n.¹). N.E.D. (1904) indicates the stress as ˈmackeler.