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#11415 12/03/00 12:00 PM
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Colour me clueless Jo. Maybe I'd understand the quote if I knew in what context he was saying it.

... and he'd understand it, too, if he understood the context he was saying it in.

Here's my pet hate in terms of turning perfectly good nouns into perfectly bad verbs: To progress something. It's becoming common usage - at least in the IT industry - and my oft-stated position that "English is changing all the time, and we shouldn't complain" starts breaking down (as do I) whenever I hear it.



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#11416 12/03/00 08:45 PM
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George W. Bush Jr

I shouldn't have to point this out, but GW isn't a junior. Junior only applies when all parts of the name are the same. His father is George H. W. Bush. So be it if I sound partisan here, but calling him junior is obviously a Democrat ploy to make him sound young and inexperienced, when in fact he's two years older than Gore, who actually was a junior, but, of course, no one cares to point any of this out. . .


#11417 12/03/00 09:11 PM
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In reply to:

I shouldn't have to point this out, but GW isn't a junior. Junior only applies when all parts of the name are the same. His father is George H. W. Bush. So be it if I sound partisan here, but calling him junior is obviously a Democrat ploy to make him sound young and inexperienced, when in fact he's two years older than Gore, who actually was a junior, but, of course, no one cares to point any of this out. . .


A point well made, Jazz. The refernce to Al Gore, Jr. led me to wondering about the wonderfully "regal" habit popular among some US citizens of numbering themselves a la Thurston Howell III. Is this a vestigial yearning for days of yore, or monarchist pretensions peeking out from behind a republican (note the lower case "r")
façade? A friend of mine is Rarotongan, and their custom is for sons to be called "Junior" while their father is alive, then to assume their given name on his death. My friend is the fourth to bear his given name, which he doesn't like. Even though his father is dead, he still goes by Junior, with the result that his son is known as "Junior Jr."


#11418 12/03/00 09:46 PM
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I never meet anyone called "junior" here. A lot of friends have a family name which is used as a second Christian name, eg William. I don't see many people who have the same Christian names as their father - I bet the post gets a bit complicated in the mornings. When did the tradition start? I can think of Pitt the Younger and I'm sure better historians (Rhubarb Commando?) will find more examples.


#11419 12/03/00 11:10 PM
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In reply to:

I never meet anyone called "junior" here. A lot of friends have a family name which is used as a second Christian name, eg William. I don't see many people who have the same Christian names as their father - I bet the post gets a bit complicated in the mornings.


Ditto for me (almost), Jo. Using a grandparent's name as a first name as a mark of respect, or continuing on a parent's name as a middle name is one thing, but in societies where there is free choice, naming your child after yourself seems the height of vanity and/or silliness and the nadir of imagination to me. Sorry if I'm offending anyone here.

I did know one family where father and son were both Murray. When talking about them (but not TO them), the mother would refer to them as "Murray" and "Young Murray".

As for postal problems, just sharing a first name initial would be bad enough. I know another family where mother and three daughters all have two-syllable names beginning with 'S'. All very alliterative, but you wouldn't want to be expecting mail of a private nature.


#11420 12/04/00 02:44 AM
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There are no 'juniors' amongst Québec names either. The child might have the name of a godparent as middle name, but that is not the one he/she is known by. Usually, junior is used to denote someone who has less experience, or who has not reached professional status (eg: junior hockey league)


#11421 12/04/00 07:32 AM
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>better historians

Of course, I'm so dim, I missed the hint in the word "regal". I suddenly thought in the middle of the night what about: http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=5634, not to mention a few Egyptian pharaohs. In fact, they never would have been a Louis XVIII if there hadn't been a few before him http://ftp.cac.psu.edu/~saw/royal/x10.html#LL

Even so, I still don't recall the word "junior" appearing, unless Prince Hal was known to his family as Henry Jnr.



#11422 12/04/00 07:33 AM
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Feel sorry, then for Major Major Major Major ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#11423 12/04/00 11:28 AM
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>Major Major Major Major

That would be a Catch 22 Catch 22!


#11424 12/04/00 12:47 PM
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I have this vague feeling that it was our Sovereign Lord Henry Eighth of that name who actually introduced the idea of numbering monarchs.

Bingley


Bingley
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