[Ads-l] Origin of Pittsburgh Pirates nickname

[Laurence Horn]

> On Oct 15, 2018, at 5:13 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Better Pirates of Penzance that No No Nanette…

Yes, that was a painful transaction for us anti-Yankees fans, if we were weren’t (quite) alive at the time of the Babe Ruth salary dump.  Crazy Frazee.  

I had always assumed the Pittsburgh Pirates were so-called for purposes of alliteration, like the Boston Braves, the Buffalo Bills, the Seattle Seahawks, the Jacksonville Jaguars, or the Philadelphia Phillies (well, OK, that one is a bit more than alliteration).  The real story is more interesting, I have to confess.  I wonder if the Tampa Bay Buc(caneer)s of the NFL stole any players when they started out.  Not enough of them, apparently.

LH

> 
> On Mon, Oct 15, 2018, 4:24 PM Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I recently posted an article about the origin of the Pittsburgh Pirates'
>> nickname.  The general story is well known - Pittsburgh "stole" (allegedly
>> - they were exonerated) some players - therefore "Pirates."  The story is a
>> bit more complex than that; there were a lot of pirates and accusations of
>> piracy flying around at the time.  Humorously, when the name Pirates
>> finally caught on with Pittsburgh, it was borrowed from lyrics from the
>> Pirates of Penzance, "It is, it is, a glorious thing, to be, to be a Pirate
>> King."
>> 
>> https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-pittsburgh-pirates-of-penzance.html
>> 
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> On Oct 15, 2018 4:24 PM, "Peter Reitan" <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I recently posted an article about the origin of the Pittsburgh Pirates'
> nickname.  The general story is well known - Pittsburgh "stole" (allegedly
> - they were exonerated) some players - therefore "Pirates."  The story is a
> bit more complex than that; there were a lot of pirates and accusations of
> piracy flying around at the time.  Humorously, when the name Pirates
> finally caught on with Pittsburgh, it was borrowed from lyrics from the
> Pirates of Penzance, "It is, it is, a glorious thing, to be, to be a Pirate
> King."
> 
> https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-pittsburgh-pirates-of-penzance.html
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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