Quote:
Originally Posted by DNTKE
Just a reminder that fraternity men across the Greek world usually find the term "Frat" disrespectful. It really reflects poorly on the person using that term. They may not say anything to you, but it does bother most fraternity men.
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As has been discussed many times here at GC, it's something of an overstatement to say that fraternity brothers "across the Greek world usually" find "frat" disrespectful or that it bothers "most" fraternity men. This can vary from fraternity to fraternity and campus to campus. In the NPHC part of the Greek world, the word "frat" is common and accepted, and judging from what people have said here at GC, there are plenty of campuses where the word is regularly used by fraternity members.
The idea that the word "frat" is disrespectful is a fairly recent one -- few people batted an eyelash at the word when I was in college -- and objection to the word is really based more on trying to avoid the "Animal House"/"frat boy" connotation that "frat" can carry than on the word being disrespectful. Go back before the 70s and 80s and you'll find national fraternity publications using the word informally.
And it's just silly to say that casual use of the word "frat" reflects poorly on the person using it.
/soapbox