Traditional names poll

[mispy]

How do you pronounce 'bejant' anyway? I usually go for something slightly French/pretentious sounding, but feel I may be going wrong.

[Frank]

bee-jant, where the j is like j in just and ant is like ant. (Bee, of course, is bee)

That's how I've always heard it pronounced, though I'm terrible at pronunciation anyway...

[hr]

"There is only ever one truth. Things are always black or white, there's no such thing as a shade of grey. If you think that something is a shade of grey it simply means that you don't fully understand the situation. The truth is narrow and the path of the pursuit of truth is similarly narrow."
Also, some years later:
"here we are arguing about a few uppity troublemakers with a bee in their bonnet and a conspiracy theory."

[12giraffes]

I pronounce it in a French sounding way too, though in all reality it rarely comes up in everyday conversation!

[Power Metal Dom]

I'd like to know what inspired Jono for this post. A prickly PC conversation perhaps?

[hr]

Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

[Haunted]

I take it we should use 'traditional' names for black people too?

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Now with 100% more corn

[WashingtonIrving]

I was wondering that. Its ridiculous. Obviously some traditional names are offensive and shouldn't be used. Obviously some aren't offensive. The 'paki shop' is traditional, no?

[hr]

"I said farewell honey, I'll see you Judgment Day"

[exnihilo]

I had assumed, from the last option, that we were talking about the traditional names for undergraduates: bejant, semi-bejant, tertian and magistrand. I, for one, certainly prefer them to the blandly insipid first, second, third and fourth years. What's wrong with a little uniqueness?

[d_24]

Quoting Haunted from 19:51, 9th May 2008
I take it we should use 'traditional' names for black people too?

[hr]

Now with 100% more corn

Which would be some pre-1700 central African name surely? If you want to go really traditional

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Before Bauer...There Was House

[TCT]

An absurd proposition.

Perhaps we could extend this to call all homosexuals 'buggers' and Jews 'Yids'?

What does exnihilo think to that?

[Haunted]

Quoting d_24 from 23:43, 9th May 2008
Which would be some pre-1700 central African name surely? If you want to go really traditional

That would be a little too traditional, do you wish to see traditional military dress revert to something vaguely resembling a man in a tin can also?

[hr]

Now with 100% more corn

[WashingtonIrving]

"Tradition is good"
-I've never understood this sentiment. Good traditions are good, bad traditions are bad. Something being a tradition has nothing to do with its value. Humanity moves forward by rejecting what is old: traditions, superstitions, whatever.

I can't even remember which name is for which year. I guess thats what I think of that particular tradition.

My 'thought for the day'.

[hr]

"I said farewell honey, I'll see you Judgment Day"

[Thackary]

Quoting washingtonirving from 00:31, 10th May 2008
I can't even remember which name is for which year.

It's two thousand and eight, dear. The visitors have already been today. Shall I get you a drink of water?

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[WashingtonIrving]

I'd prefer whisky, you know, allows me to reminisce about when I were a lad.

[hr]

"I said farewell honey, I'll see you Judgment Day"

[Jono]

Quoting Power_Metal_Dom from 19:37, 9th May 2008
I'd like to know what inspired Jono for this post. A prickly PC conversation perhaps?

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Like flames on fuel...upon metal I drool

I was a little confused as to what you meant for a second. But this is my poll.

I posted this back in second year and have since completely forgotten about it. I believe it was in response to another poll, and it was mostly about undergrad names.

[Al]

Quoting TCT from 23:47, 9th May 2008
An absurd proposition.

Perhaps we could extend this to call all homosexuals 'buggers' and Jews 'Yids'?

What has that got to do with the use of traditional names at St Andrews?

[SchizophrenicCabbage]

As to pronunciation, I say "bedge-ant' - 'bedge' to rhyme with, obviously, 'hedge' and 'ant', but not a hard stress [a mix of 'ant' and 'ent'] as in the insect/bug - I'm not totally sure how many legs/thorax divisions it has and I'm sure someone out there will scream bloody murder about its rightful classifcation anyway.

[exnihilo]

Washingtonirving, I agree with you, tradition is no more objectively good than modernity is, and neither one is objectively bad. Some tradition is fun, quirky, colourful, characterful and should be retained. Some is pointless, obstructive and anachronistic and should be got rid of.

Calling the years by their old names, is the former. Talking about buggers and yids on this thread is missing the point. It is not "traditional" to insult people, and to to try to marry that kind of deliberate giving of offence to the idea of tradition is absurd and pathetic.

That said, falling into both categories that TCT mentioned, I don't give a damn about either word. I don't find any word offensive, only people.