Webelos was Re: "outside of a dog"

[Neal Whitman]

I never knew about the Lion scout level, though I did have the feeling (when
my son joined up) that the first-grade Tiger level was a recent addition.
Cub Scout organizers seem to be confused, mixing up Asian, African, and
North American animals and folklore. They talk about "Akelas" as adult
leaders, a term lifted from _The Jungle Book_, but also like to bring in
Native American stuff.

Webelos (sorry, I just can't capitalize the whole thing) may be presented as
an acronym, but it's an unfortunate one because it ends in <s>, inviting it
to be interpreted as a plural. Indeed, the <s> is pronounced like a plural
[z] ending, and the backformation "Webelo" is the standard term for one such
scout. If "Webelo" is an acronym, it would have to stand for just "We('ll)
be loyal." In fact, if "Webelos" were truly used as an acronym, the singular
should be "IBeLoS." And (I'm not done yet) why does loyalty alone get
elevated from the Boy Scout oath into this acronym? To be consistent, they
should have "WeBeTruLoHelFrienCurKiObCheeThrifBraCleRevS". Oh, well, maybe
they're talking about meta-loyalty, loyalty encompassing ordinary loyalty
and all the other scout virtues.

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:30 AM
Subject: Re: Webelos was Re: Re: "outside of a dog"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Webelos was Re: Re: "outside of a dog"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8:48 AM -0400 6/15/10, Amy West wrote:
>>On 6/15/10 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>>>   remember it well, having been
>>>a Cub Scout for the whole Webelos trajectory--"Wolf Bear Lion
>>>Scout"--but I dropped out before the Tenderfoot stage
>>Interesting. I was recently told by scouts in Mass. it stood for "We be
>>loyal scouts."
>>
>>Another folk initialism/acronym?
>>
>>--
>>---Amy West
>>
> Looks like we're both (essentially) right:
>
> ===========
> WEBELOS is an acronym, according to the BSA's public relations and
> media relations guides, and therefore should appear in ALL CAPS as
> written above.
>
> The acronym, thought up in the early 40s, does NOT presently stand
> for "Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout" as before; it now stands for "WE'll BE
> LOyal Scouts!". The WEBELOS Cub Scout program replaced the Lion Cub
> Scout program in 1966 and became a part of the Cub Scout Program in
> 1967.
>
> http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle/webelos.htm
> ==========
>
> I prefer Amy's version with the invariant "be", but I guess this way
> individual dens and troops can decide on the appropriate verb form
> for themselves.
>
> LH (a.k.a. Automatic digest processor)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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