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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
A non-US'n asked me what sororities and fraternities are. I explained to the best of my somewhat limited knowledge. I'd be interested to see how the rest of you view them, as well as your own definitions, please.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I know very little about them; was never into the Greek life, as if it was  . But here's a tidbit to further confuse things for your non-USn, Jackie: I recently learned from the daughter of a friend that many colleges nowadays have co-ed (is that word still current?) organizations: the one she belongs to is called a fraternity. Go figger.
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 114
member
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member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 114 |
the one she belongs to is called a fraternityThey should call it a fratority - especially if she's fraternizing with any of the brothers. :) P.S. A Google search reveals that Theta Sigma thought of this at least 3 years before I did: Extract from Theta Sigma website: The term ?fratority,? combining fraternity and sorority, was adopted to demonstrate that ?some members have penises and others do not.?http://snipurl.com/fxa4
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I was in one of a couple of out-groups back in my first pass at college in the pre-60 60s. We called ourselves barbarians because we considered "independent" to be a negative term. There was a co-ed subset of the two groups that we called Alpha Wu (because we hung out at the local A&W root beer stand) and that we referred to as a furority.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 508 |
colleges nowadays have co-ed (is that word still current?) organizations
It's been my impression that these coed groups are (or started out as) usually professional rather than primarily social organizations. For example, a business "fraternity" would have both male and female business majors. But now that I think about it, I'm not sure any of the coed professional groups call themselves "sororities." Hmm.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Co-ed frats aren't just "nowadays." I was one of a class of two first female members of the MSU chapter of AKPsi back in the day.
AKPsi is a "professional" frat in that it is for business majors, but it is (at least, our chapter was) very social, in that it had a residential house and the usual menu of parties, intermural teams and such.
It was, and is, called a frat because it started as a frat.
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273 |
Maybe these co-educational "fraternities" could borrow the German geschwisterkeit.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
> geschwisterkeit
what kind of wind do you need for that thing?
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 273 |
I like it because it means "siblinghood", but is clearly derived from the word for sister, not that for brother.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
but is clearly derived from the word for sister, not that for brother - correct, from a purely etymological standpoint, but "Geschwister" was used for siblings of mixed gender way before the whole gender question arose. Nothing against equality, but I find "Geschwisterkeit" a linguistic monster.
Edit - now I know why: Google yields zero hits on Geschwisterkeit. The correct word is Geschwisterlichkeit (10400 German-language hits).
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