Names With Zing

Thu Jun 14 01:54:10 UTC 2007

Yeah, but you gotta admit that the mixup with "Matilda the Nun" was pretty awesome.

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: Names With Zing
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It's been dekkids since I've heard anything except "Att-ILL-a," so
that I feel like a pedantic putz saying "ATT-ila" and then having to
justify it by pointing out that "Etzel" can't be accounted for,
otherwise, and that Yiddish "VELvel," from *Wulfila "Little Wolf," a
common nickname for Ze'ev, "Wolf," also shows that -ila never bore
stress.

-Wilson

On 6/13/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> Subject: Re: Names With Zing
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When _I_ was a kid, he was "Att-ILL-a." Then they changed it to "ATT-illa." Am pretty sure that's how Sophia Loren pronounced it. Maybe it's switched back again.
>
> Anyway, at the seance, he jumped around on the table, yelled, screamed in Hunnish, and got rude toward the ladies.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: Names With Zing
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Attila the Hun, I presume, though I can't guess what he did next. Do I
> really want to? FWIW, when I was a kid, his name was "ATT-ila," from
> which its modern Gerrnan descendant, Etzel, is easily derived.
>
> Deathers O'Flanagan and Dingwall Fleary are a couple of names of real people.
>
> Until I got to high school, I had no idea of the full range of
> surnames available to white people. Some quite ordinary names, such as
> "Faherty," "Hoogstraet," "Yoch," "Zupez," and "Koziatek" (especially
> when combined with his first name of "Kazimir") initially struck me as
> so absolutely ridiculous when roll was called for the first time in
> homeroom that I nearly had a heart attack from the effort involved in
> surpressing my laughter. "Higginsbotham" was the strangest surname
> that I had previously encountered. And this was just one guy. In high
> school, I had to deal with hundreds of, to me, weirdo surnames at
> once. The white people living in the hood had names like "Adams,"
> "Jones" (both of which are also quite common among blacks, of course)
> "Rohay," and "Rosen" and I was only six years old when I first heard
> them, long before I'd drawn any conclusion as to what constituted an
> "ordinary" surname.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 6/13/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: Names With Zing
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > About twenty years ago, the _Weekly World News_ reported on a horrible experience. An elderly lady joined a seance to attempt to contact her sister, Matilda the nun, who had recently passed over.
> >
> > Owing to a faulty psychic connection, guess who showed up and wha he did next?
> >
> > JL
> >
> > Darla Wells wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Darla Wells
> > Subject: Re: Names With Zing
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I remember all the neat burlesque names from when I was a kid, like Tempest
> > Storm and Candy Barr. The roller derby ladies in Seattle have some good ones:
> >
> > White Team Members: Jowanna Ass-Kickin', Matilda the Hun, Ann R. Kissed,
> > Hideous Braxley, Dirty Little Secret, Meg My Day, Carmen Getsome, Rollin'
> > Bayou, Billie Boilermaker, and Rebel Belle
> >
> > Green Team Members: D-Bomb, Miss Fortune, Burnett Down, Drew Blood, Rettig to
> > Rumble, Edie Brickwall, Valtron 3000, Katarina Whip, Tash-ya Round, and Juliet
> > Bravo
> >
> > http://www.ratcityrollergirls.com/photos.html
> >
> > Darla
> >
> > With magic, you can turn a frog into a prince. With science, you can turn a
> > frog into a Ph.D and you still have the frog you started with. (Terry Pratchett)
> >
> > ---------- Original Message -----------
> > From: Doug Harris
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Sent: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:52:02 -0400
> > Subject: Names With Zing
> >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > > Poster: Doug Harris
> > > Subject: Names With Zing
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > That is not, of course, the subject head we
> > > were using a few days or so ago re the matter
> > > of names that live on in memory for their...
> > > well, for their 'zing'.
> > > 'Just watched the movie Biloxi Blues, in which
> > > several WWII era soldier have their initial
> > > introduction to in-the-flesh sex, and sex with
> > > a prostitute. The latter character's name was
> > > Rowena, which could be said to sound sort of
> > > prostitutey in a Biloxi sort of way.
> > > The actress who played Rowena was named Park
> > > Overall. Now _THERE's a prostitutey name for
> > > ya!!!
> > > (the other) doug
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> > ------- End of Original Message -------
> >
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> >
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>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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