[Ads-l] Why "Orangemen" ?

[dave@wilton.net]

> PS: I'm skeptical there's a connection between the two meanings. 
 
According to Wikipedia, Syracuse is "orange" as a nod to the early Dutch colonization of New York.
 
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_Orange#Nicknames,_mascots_and_colors ]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_Orange#Nicknames,_mascots_and_colors ) 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: "Stanton McCandlish" <smccandlish at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 3:38pm
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Why "Orangemen" ?



Dave's hypothesis:

> Perhaps because the Syracuse sense, Orangeman n.2, is distinct from
Orangeman n.1, that is "a person who espouses Protestant political
principles, esp. in Northern Ireland."

is entirely plausible to me as well. (And that religio-political sense goes
back to William of Orange and the "Glorious Revolution").

I'm more or less an American culturally (born in Texas, learned to read and
write in the UK, spent most of my life in the US aside from a stint in
Canada, and probably more aware than American-average of British Isles
history due to genealogy investigations), but am not interested the
slightest in American college sports. So, I wasn't even aware of the
Syracuse team name or nickname (I think I'd heard/seen it before but
couldn't've told you "Syracuse"). I was, though, well aware of the older
meaning, which generally pertains to British loyalists in Ulster, and even
Americans of my generation were exposed to a lot of sporadic news about
that region because of the Troubles.

I would think that, on average, English-speaking readers who are not
Americans would be fairly likely to be familiar with the term in the
Ulster/N.Ir. sense, but very unlikely to be familiar with the American
sports alternative meaning, and thus might be sorely confused by it if they
encountered it.

PS: I'm skeptical there's a connection between the two meanings. Syracuse
U. was founded by Methodist Episcopals, who split off from the Anglicans,
while the vast majority of Ulster Protestants are Presbyterian of one
variety or another and not allied with Anglicanism and variants thereof
any further than being generally un-Catholic. There are American
institutions founded by Scots-Irish / Ulster-Scots Presbyterian immigrants,
but Syracuse U. wasn't one of them. I would think that their Orange[men] is
simply from the school color, like the Crimson Tide of U. Alabama. (I had
to look that one up, too; couldn't remember what school it was. I can tell
you all about pro pool players though; I'm not 100% sport-deficient!)




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