Prepare to laugh at me...

[33girl]

I am proud to be a member of Father Sit Father. It sounds like the sequel to Hop On Pop.

[veemers]

I think if you go back far enough, each of the greek letters actually does mean something real, because when I was pledging, one of my sisters told me that way back when, GLO's picked their letters because of their meanings. Perhaps the meanings were mixed up or lost over the years, but it seemed to me to be a good reason to choose certain letters.

[xo_kathy]

Not always true!

One of my fave Chi Omega facts:

When the ladies were deciding on a name, they cut out all the letters of the Greek alpahabet and spread them on the floor. They decided the letters C and W looked the best together so that's what they picked. (I have to agree! ). The meaning was decided after the letters were chosen.

[AXORissa]

Originally posted by xo_kathy
Not always true!

One of my fave Chi Omega facts:

When the ladies were deciding on a name, they cut out all the letters of the Greek alpahabet and spread them on the floor. They decided the letters C and W looked the best together so that's what they picked. (I have to agree! ). The meaning was decided after the letters were chosen.

heh, I think C W looks like its missing a letter...

hehe.

as for us... AXW -- means first and last. of course, thats not what it means in our ritual... but its still fun to have those letters

[PsychTau]

Originally posted by veemers
I think if you go back far enough, each of the greek letters actually does mean something real, because when I was pledging, one of my sisters told me that way back when, GLO's picked their letters because of their meanings. Perhaps the meanings were mixed up or lost over the years, but it seemed to me to be a good reason to choose certain letters.

My opinion is that the founders picked letters that maybe matched the meaning/purpose/motto of the group they were creating. I'm pretty certain that the Alpha in AST doesn't have the same meaning as the Alpha in ASA or AOII.

Example: I'm creating a sorority and I want the deep, sisters-only ritual meaning to be something like "Loyalty and Honor". So I might pick the greek letters Lambda for Loyalty, and Eta for Honor. My new sorority would be Lambda Eta. Or I might know that Chi is similar to kai, meaning "and". So it could be Lambda Chi Eta. Or if that sounded funny, I could add "Truth" to my motto (Loyalty, Honor, Truth) and my letters could be Lambda Eta Tau. But Loyalty, Honor, Truth isn't going to be my open motto, it's the secret meaning of my letters. I could then create an open motto to match my letters anyway. Or I could create something different.

Or if I knew enough about Latin and Greek languages, I could really get creative. But I don't, so there's the simple example.

The fact that AST's open motto (Active, Self Reliant, and Trustworthy) matches the letters A, S, and T isn't an accident. BUT, it's not the true meaning of our letters that's learned in ritual. The one's who came up with the open motto decided to match it to A, S, and T (for reasons I don't know for sure).

In short, I don't think everyone's greek letters stand for the same thing. Every Alpha doesn't mean the same in ritual, etc.

(sorry for the rambling, but the example was kinda fun to come up with!)
PsychTau

[AUDeltaGam]

Our open motto "Do Good" matches with the greek Delta and Gamma, but it's not our secret ritual meaning.

We also have our "closed" motto, Tau Delta Eta, but that's for DGs to know the meaning of

[etahannah]

Originally posted by AUDeltaGam
That would mean Delta Gamma means "change in the unit of magnetic field strenght equal to one-hundred-thousand of an oersted"

Not even close

no? i thought that is what it meant!!

maybe i need to be re-initiated and maybe i should pay attention this time!!

i wonder what DG really means if it doesnt mean "change in the unit of magnetic field strength equal to one-hundred-thousand of an oersted"

***dances a crazy dance***

[SapphireSphinx9]

Originally posted by Glitter650
Well this would be backward... but I guess then Phi Sigma Sigma is the "sum of perfection" Not bad...... not the true meaning... but hey sounds good to me !!

Sounds good to me too!!!!

Rock on!

[HotDamnImAPhiMu]

Originally posted by DeltaBetaBaby
Hahahaha...The engineer in me has to dispute this one. I have used every letter uppercase and lowercase at least once.

Kappa--Control coefficient
Psi--phase angle

Anything for Mu?

[HotDamnImAPhiMu]

Originally posted by PsychTau
The fact that AST's open motto (Active, Self Reliant, and Trustworthy) matches the letters A, S, and T isn't an accident. BUT, it's not the true meaning of our letters that's learned in ritual. The one's who came up with the open motto decided to match it to A, S, and T (for reasons I don't know for sure).

In short, I don't think everyone's greek letters stand for the same thing. Every Alpha doesn't mean the same in ritual, etc.

A lot of us do that, though.....

AKL = Affiliation Kindled for Life
ASA = Aspire, Seek, Attain
AST = Active, Self Reliant, Trustworthy
DG = Do Good


and I'm sure there are more..... I think that's great. A good way to show PNMs that (a) our letters have special meaning, but not give it away and (b) demonstrate that our letters mean different things. Not only are there several meanings to the same letters, but that the group means different things to different members.

[GPhiLlama]

I belong to "Go sing, graphic bed!"


That sounds like the name of a bad musical.

[rainbowbrightCS]

Originally posted by AlethiaSi
alpha- father

beta- bed

gamma- go sing

delta- do

epsilon- met

zeta- edge

eta- prey

theta- this

iota- pie

kappa- kill

lambda- land

mu- men

nu- no

xi (there is no meaning)

omicron- obey

pi- pet

rho- rug

sigma- sit

tau- tell

upsilon (there is no meaning)

phi- graphic

chi- rich

psi- hipp

omega- tone

these are the real meanings from our pledge books- one of my sisters just sent them to me... and obviously they were randon because that was all i could remember at the time.....

If this is true than I will be rushing this fall at Father go Sing Do, Father Xi Do, Rich Tone, Kill Do, Do Do Do, Graphic Men!


I can't wait.

[AUDeltaGam]

Originally posted by etahannah
no? i thought that is what it meant!!

maybe i need to be re-initiated and maybe i should pay attention this time!!

i wonder what DG really means if it doesnt mean "change in the unit of magnetic field strength equal to one-hundred-thousand of an oersted"

***dances a crazy dance***

Gasp! I cannot believe you forgot our sacred meaning!! Those magnet fields are the foundation of our sisterhood!!!

[ADqtPiMel]

I'm a member of Father Do Pet....sounds rather scandalous to me

[Cluey]

Originally posted by GPhiLlama
I belong to "Go sing, graphic bed!"


That sounds like the name of a bad musical.

Don't let the secret bed part of our ritual out. No one will understand