USC

[Dave Wilton]

Here in Berkeley, the university is frequently referred to as "Cal" in all
contexts, not just sports. (Although "the university" is probably the most
common local designation.)

The Air Force Academy is called "Air Force" in sports contexts. But I've
never heard it referred to as "Colorado Springs" to parallel "West Point"
and "Annapolis."

Nor is the Coast Guard Academy referred to as "New London" (I've never heard
of them referred to in sports contexts--do they even have teams?) The even
lesser-known Merchant Marine Academy is, however, called "King's Point."
Again, never heard of them in a sports context.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Fred Shapiro
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 3:37 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: USC

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006, Charles Doyle wrote:

> I'd call "SC" for 'The University of Southern California' an LA'ism, and
> "USC" perhaps a Westernism.  When I moved from (that) USC to The
> University of Georgia in 1974, I discovered that "USC" now meant 'The
> University of South Carolina'--while The University of Southern
> California is known in the South (and elsewhere?--but not in
> California?) as "Southern Cal."

It is interesting that colleges sometimes are referred to in the sports
world differently from the way they are referred to in normal contexts.
Thus "Berkeley" is called "California" or "Cal" in the sports world.
"West Point" is called "Army" in the sports world.  "Annapolis" or "the
Naval Academy" is called "Navy" in the sports world.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org