ok, so this is what I've been told since forever by my mother who was in a sorority in the late 70's:
she says the fraternity guys on her campus told her, "you don't abbreviate your country so don't abbreviate your fraternity"
(and by abbreviate your country, they mean pronounce country w/o the "ry"...just pronounce the beginning of the word = dirty word that I'm not gonna post
)
Kinda weird...but I never say "frat" due to this lil reminder
