Then I guess it's certainly a 3-way battle. ;-)

We also go by Theta Phi, but my campus is lazy vocally; Theta Phi Alpha is just "Theta", Tri-Sigma is just "Sigma", etc, etc.

To me, any nickname such as Theta, Alpha Sig, Alpha Chi, etc. is not a non-letter nickname.

I think the non-letter went out the door on post #1.

:confused: Not in this lifetime. Deltas, yes. Thetas, no.

When I was at The University of Kentucky, the following fraternities often went by their last letter.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon = Es (not Epsilon but the English pronunciation "e")
Sigma Nu = Nus

:) Maybe each campus has their own?

I never heard of Choppers until this site!

But to use names to belittle others is crass!

I thought We were Fellow Greeks not ass wipes?

Vikes/Vikings - a particular group of Alpha Phi Omega brothers.

Sigma Phi Epsilon = Spee Dawgs

"Deepher" for Delta Phi Epsilon

Here's some goofy nicknames we had for the big brother groups on my campus (just shortly before all that got ixnayed.)

Gamma Phi Beta = Moonshiners
AOII = Rose Men
Delta Gamma = Anchor Men
Delta Zeta = Bud Men
Alpha phi = Ivy Men
Tri Delta = Sea....Kings.

I've also seen AOII Pi Guy!

MoonSHINERS??? lol We had moonlighters!

Unfortunately, rather mean-spirited nicknames
 

A number of GLOs on my college campus had rather crude nicknames. This is perhaps the least crude, because the members themselves used it:

Alpha Phi Delta: Alphi Phi Dago

On my college campus, most of the fraternities had their origins along ethnic lines.

Another semi-crude nickname that I have heard is ZBT from the University of Texas Austin : Zillionaires, Billionaires and Trillionaires

LPsiD girls are called diamonds...all the others i know have already been said.

I so thought this thread was going to be about funny nicknames and the not-so funny ones. Like "Kappa Drama" for Kappa Delta or something.

the local DU Alumni Association dropped off fliers to all the Greeks this year going over their new house rules (4 million dollar renovations = strict rules) and part of the letter went on about how it's pronounced "YUPE-SILON" not "OOPS" or "UPS". Touchy touchy ;-)

Our AOIIs refer to themselves as "Pizzles"

"Ladybugs" - Alpha Sigma Alpha
"Turtles" - Delta Zeta

when you get it ALL the time we do tend to be a bit touchy on that one.

it is rather annoying. people took the time to pronounce "alpha fee," it would be awesome if we could get the same courtesy. it'll catch on someday.

Theta "Kats"

Understandable, but fwiw, "oopsilon" is much closer to the Greek than "yupesilon." In modern Greek, it's actually more like "eepsilon"; in classical Greek the "u" is pronounced more like a French "u" or a German "ü." There never would have been a "y" at the beginning.

Seriously, though, I'm all for pronouncing an GLO's name the way that GLO prefers that it be pronounced, so I will say a sincere thanks for this chance to know what members of Delta Upsilon prefer.

So, I can't call you a FEE MOO ALFAMA?:p;)

I'll never forget my roommate coming back from a ChiO COB party telling me that she was going to be a "Chai Omega". Too bad she was on academic probation, so it was a moot point anyway.

These are all from Otterbein. The nicknames are the original names of the fraternities and sororities. We didn't take letters until the late 20s.

Sororities:
Tau Delta= TeeDee's or Deltas or Tomo Dachi
Sigma Alpha Tau= Owls
Epsilon Kappa Tau= Arbutus (arbutie cuties)
Theta Nu= Greenwhich Girls
Kappa Phi Omega= Onyx
Tau Epsilon Mu= Talisman

Fraternities:
Sigma Delta Phi= Sphinx
Lambda Gamma Epsilon= Kings
Pi Kappa Phi (not the national)= Country Club
Pi Beta Sigma= Pi Sig, or The Bulls...I forgot what two clubs joined together to create them, I know one was the Alps club
Zeta Phi= Zeta, or The Rats (originally the Stars, or so campus legend goes...could be wrong)
Eta Phi Mu= Jonda

As far as the pronunciation thing...I am SO TIRED of hearing people say Alpha Sigma Tau with the tau rhyming with "cow". Wrong wrong wrong! People, you should know how to say the name of the GLOs on your OWN CAMPUS. Even Panhel E-board sometimes gets it wrong.

Thanks, but no. (And Alfama?) There was one person at my school who always called us Fee Mu Alpha. But she was English, so it was automatically cute.

Maybe she was just excited because she thought she thought the Chai O's had their own tea named after them?

(I couldn't think of a way to mispronounce Alpha... Alp-ha? Better?)

I wouldn't put it past her. She was just that special.

Thank you for this! I JUST had this conversation last night with a bunch of people -- I like your description of it sounding like "cow" better, I imagine the word spelled "T-a-o" when pronounced that way, so when they first said it that way my response was, "as in, 'The Tao of Pooh?". So not right.

Actually, Tao is pronounced like "Dow".:p:D

Right. Doesn't "dow" rhyme with "cow"? What I was trying to say was that they mispronounced "Tau" in this way and I was the only one arguing that wasn't how you pronounce "Tau". (I used the "Tao of Pooh" as an example of how I heard the word they were saying, and it wasn't the greek "tau")

Tow (like cow or dow) and Taw (like "all") are both considered acceptable English pronunciations, although the few dictionaries I looked at all gave "Tow" as the preferred (and sometimes only) pronunciation.

In Modern Greek, it's more like "Tahf." (I'm really not making this up, I promise.)

Again, for purposes of Alpha Sigam Tau, I'll defer to your preference.

I guess I should have said that Tao is pronounced "Dow"...not LIKE "Dow". In Pinyin, it can be written as Dao OR Tao, but it's always pronounced with a "D" sound and never a "T" sound.

Ok, well I'm certainly not going to start a debate with you two, I might be new around here but I'm a pretty quick study. :)

I just always learned it is Tau as is "paw". And my Dad was most certainly an Alpha Tau (paw) Omega. My friends were in Sigma Delta Tau (paw). I dated a Delta Tau (paw) Delta. The chapter across the way was Zeta Tau (paw) Alpha. Tau Tau Tau. Paw paw paw. 'sall I'm sayin'. :)

Actually, I've usually heard "taw" as well (and that's what I tend to say). But be that as it may, "tow" is a correct pronunciation, and at least according the dictionaries I looked at, the preferred (by whoever decided) English pronuncation.

It goes back to what I've said before -- we have anglicized the names of most of the Greek letters, and sometimes we have more than one anglicized version (like with T). Going back to AlphaFrog's post above, if we went by Greek pronunciation (modern at least), the name of my fraternity would be pronounced PHEE MEE AH-lpha. :D

That's why I maintain that when it comes to any given GLO, the "correct" way to the pronounce the names of the Greek letters is the way prefered by that GLO.

And you're absolutely right. After your post I "googled" it and did find that "tow" predominated the first pronunciation listings ("taw" being secondary or nonexistent). So that's good to know! (though I'll always be a "taw" girl). :)

Umm....Alpha Sigma TAU, Sigma Delta TAU

I don't see the post you're referring to...but it would be uninformed, not closed-mided. I'm sure if that person (whomever you're referring to) knew that there were other sororities with Tau in the name, I'm sure he would accept it...otherwise THEN he would be close-minded.

And, if you want to get technical, there are only TWO NPC sororties with Tau in their name, ZTA is a women's fraternity.

LOL. I think she was referring to you:
:p:p

DMBabyZeta: Make the http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/im...tons/quote.gif your friend. ;)

HA! I was talking about my own campus.

Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Sigma Tau
Chi Omega
Delta Zeta
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma

Lots of Alphas and Sigmas, only one Tau.