Re: British v. American Vocabulary (Update)


13 Sep 95 01:17:08 GMT

Allison Weaver <aweaver@nova.umuc.edu> writes:

>On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Ben Chalmers wrote:
>> By the way, they're Bumbags in the UK (Does Bum mean Backside in American, or
>> just tramp?)
>Well, I understand the term both ways, but then I have read a number of
>British authors. Anyone else?

Bum and Fanny are roughly equivalent terms in American, both referring to
the gluteus maximus and environs. Bum is, perhaps, a bit more "childish"
(meaning more likely to be used by a child), but both are relatively tame
words, generally usable in all but the most polite company.

>PS. Ben, I haven't found anyone who knows why frats and sororities are
>named with Greek characters. Again, anyone else that can help?

Fraternities are (mostly) named with Greek characters because the first one,
Phi Beta Kappa, was. Phi Beta Kappa was a literary/academic society, as
were those that followed; social aspects rapidly overpowered academic
aspects in most fraternities. For most fraternities, the Greek letters
are the first letters of the "secret motto", which is one of the shared
secrets that brings about a feeling of brotherhood. Note that the motto
is not necessarily in Greek; I've heard of them in English, Greek, and Latin.

Nowadays, the Greek letters are "traditional" for fraternities, so they
perpetuate themselves. They are remnants of the academic past of
fraternities, from the days when fraternities were more than places to
socialize and live off-campus.

--
Brad Jones (rjones@us.oracle.com), Oracle Toolkit Development Tools
In the unlikely event that Oracle has opinions, these aren't them.
"Why don't we just give Bill Gates ALL the money now and get it over with?"
"Pride."        -- Doonesbury, 17 Aug 1995