Re: British v. American Vocabulary (Update)


Thu, 14 Sep 1995 18:54:55 GMT

In <Pine.SOL.3.91.950912195708.28287A-100000@nova>, Allison Weaver <aweaver@nova.umuc.edu> writes:
>PS. Ben, I haven't found anyone who knows why frats and sororities are
>named with Greek characters. Again, anyone else that can help?

I believe that, historically, they were to conceal secret names that were
either actual Greek or English spelled as Greek. Sufficiently old material
will occasionally turn up a reference in the form "Phi of Alpha Alpha". When
the original fraternities were created (the sororities are, of course, much
younger), Greek was an ordinary accomplishment, after all.