Quote:
Originally posted by queequek
"Acacia" is a greek word, thus in a sense, they are Greek. Even more "greek-er" than the rest of us, because they are using Greek word instead of Greek letters.
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Okay, I'll disagree just a little. Acacia (it's a kind of tree, in case anyone is wondering) is an Latin derivative of a Greek word:
akakia (akakia). The Latin version came straight into English, and is pronounced
uh-KAY-shuh, as opposed to the Greek
ah-KAH-kee-ah. So acacia is a Latin/English word, not a Greek one. Minor quibble, but what the hey.
I'll throw my hat in with wptw, KSigkid and others: "Greek" is short-hand for Greek-letter organization/fraternity/sorority; it is also a name for a member of a Greek-letter organization/fraternity/sorority. Without Greek letters, an organization is not a Greek-letter organization. It certainly may be (and in the case of FH, Acacia, Triangle, Ceres, etc., is) a true fraternity or sorority, it just isn't a Greek-letter fraternity or sorority. No disrespect intended in the least.
That said, there are loose, slang uses: When someone says "Go Greek," I think we can all assume that they mean "join a fraternity or sorority," regardless of whether it has Greek letters in the name. So, I imagine most of us would consider joining FH or Triangle as "going Greek."
And for Tom Earp,
Acacia was an outgrowth of the University of Michigan Masonic Club. Originally, membership was restricted to Master Masons, and the fraternity still has a strong Masonic connection.