Scalito and other name-blends
Ben Zimmer
because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of
other cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person
A to suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from
the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
(see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving celebrity
couples (Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other such
conflations (e.g., Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein "Woodstein").
Bill Bonde ('by a commodius vicus of recirculation')
How is mixing together Bill and Hillary a celeb name blend? I've heard
that many times but I don't recall the "McStarrthy" one. In fact, that's
just absurd. Starr had no similarity to McCarthy. Starr knew how many
bad guys he was after, always two.
--
Had Tolstoy confined himself to war or peace, he could have been
finished in seven hundred and fifty pages.
--
In a day and age when some people would think nothing of throwing stones
at Rosa Parks, she dared to rock the bus. Bully for her!
Chris Waigl
> We're hearing a lot today about how Samuel Alito is nicknamed "Scalito"
> because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of
> other cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person
> A to suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from
> the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
> which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
> (see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
I remember "John F Kerredy". Google has a few of those, but I don't know
how widespread it was.
Chris Waigl
--
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personal blog : just ask for the URL
Ben Zimmer
>
> Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
>>We're hearing a lot today about how Samuel Alito is nicknamed "Scalito"
>>because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of
>>other cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person
>>A to suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from
>>the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
>>which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
>>(see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
>>
>>This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving celebrity
>>couples (Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other such
>>conflations (e.g., Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein "Woodstein").
>>
>
> How is mixing together Bill and Hillary a celeb name blend?
Well, they're political celebrities. My point was more that the
"Billary" blend is shorthand for the union of the couple (or their
inseparability, at least back in '92), much like "Bennifer" et al.
>I've heard that many times but I don't recall the "McStarrthy" one. In
>fact, that's just absurd. Starr had no similarity to McCarthy. Starr
knew how
>many bad guys he was after, always two.
"McStarrthy" would obviously only work for those who wanting to paint
Starr's investigation as a witch-hunt worthy of McCarthy. Much as
someone from the other side of the political spectrum might call Hillary
Clinton "Madame Hillary" to evoke Madame Mao.
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> We're hearing a lot today about how Samuel Alito is nicknamed "Scalito"
> because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of
> other cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person
> A to suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from
> the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
> which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
> (see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
Speaking of people who resemble Scalia, does it count that Amiri Baraka
called a Supreme Court Justice "Tom-ass Clarence", or do both people
have to be real?
I know I've seen or heard other examples of what you're talking about.
I just can't think of any.
--
Jerry Friedman
Bill Bonde ('by a commodius vicus of recirculation')
That's odd because I think that example more suggests she's a Madame
Bovary, who by the way I feel sure would've supported Hillary's efforts
to hold Bush to the fire on his retaining of lowered Clinton era potable
water arsenic level standards. And anyway, what I've heard many times on
usenet, to quote it, is "Hitlery", an over the top but quite unambigious
blend if there ever was one.
R H Draney
>
>We're hearing a lot today about how Samuel Alito is nicknamed "Scalito"
>because of his similarity to Antonin Scalia. I'm trying to think of
>other cases where an epithet blending names A and B is applied to person
>A to suggest a similarity to person B. There must be other examples from
>the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
>which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
About 25 years ago, I had occasion to refer to a certain group as "Roger McPetty
and the Byrdbreakers", because of a perceived similarity to an earlier group;
does that count?...(I don't suppose "Ricardo Mendelbaum" does since there's no
actual person anchoring the second name)....r
Ted Schuerzinger
news:KP2dnZI20Yc76fve...@comcast.com:
> There must be other examples from
> the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
> which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
> (see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
>
I'd never heard of "McStarrthy" before.
But surely you've read of "Bushitler", or any of the variations like
"Halliburton Bushitler" or "Chimpy W. Bushitler", or so on....
--
Ted <fedya at bestweb dot net>
Oh Marge, anyone can miss Canada, all tucked away down there....
--Homer Simpson
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> Somebody claiming to be Ben Zimmer <bgzi...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote in
> news:KP2dnZI20Yc76fve...@comcast.com:
>
> > There must be other examples from
> > the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
> > which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
> > (see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
> >
>
> I'd never heard of "McStarrthy" before.
>
> But surely you've read of "Bushitler", or any of the variations like
> "Halliburton Bushitler" or "Chimpy W. Bushitler", or so on....
Ah. Do they both have to be people? I now remember "Ronzo", not to
mention "Ronbo". I'm still on fictional characters, though.
And does it have to be a blend? Someone who translated Akhmatova's
poems referred to another notable Russian poet as
"Talleyrand-Yevtushenko".
--
Jerry Friedman
Ben Zimmer
> Ted Schuerzinger wrote:
>
>>Somebody claiming to be Ben Zimmer <bgzi...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>There must be other examples from
>>>the political world, but the only one I can think of is "McStarrthy",
>>>which was used on Ken Starr to imply a similarity to Joseph McCarthy
>>>(see, e.g.: <http://blog.rjwest.com/?m=20050325>).
>>
>>I'd never heard of "McStarrthy" before.
>>
>>But surely you've read of "Bushitler", or any of the variations like
>>"Halliburton Bushitler" or "Chimpy W. Bushitler", or so on....
>
> Ah. Do they both have to be people? I now remember "Ronzo", not to
> mention "Ronbo". I'm still on fictional characters, though.
Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. I've incorporated them into a
post on the Language Log:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002610.html
(Previous posts of mine have also incorporated a.u.e topics.)
CDB
"Ben Zimmer" <bgzi...@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote in message
news:d9ydnTr8O6l...@comcast.com...
>> Ted Schuerzinger wrote:
[...]
>>>But surely you've read of "Bushitler", or any of the variations
>>>like
>>>"Halliburton Bushitler" or "Chimpy W. Bushitler", or so on....
[...]
>
> Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. I've incorporated them into a
> post on the Language Log:
>
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002610.html
I don't see it mentioned here or in the LL article, but surely the
variations of "Bushitler" also intend "bullshitter".
Joe Fineman
> This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving
> celebrity couples (Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other
> such conflations (e.g., Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein
> "Woodstein").
"Chesterbelloc" is a venerable one.
--
--- Joe Fineman jo...@verizon.net
||: Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as :||
||: equals. :||
Areff
> Ben Zimmer <bgzi...@midway.uchicago.edu> writes:
>
>> This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving
>> celebrity couples (Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other
>> such conflations (e.g., Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein
>> "Woodstein").
>
> "Chesterbelloc" is a venerable one.
Not exactly the same thing since it's an adjective, but there's the early
postwar BrE "Butskellite"/"Butskellism".
Maria Conlon
> Ben Zimmer writes:
>
>> This of course is a separate issue from name-blends involving
>> celebrity couples (Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, TomKat) or other
>> such conflations (e.g., Ben Bradlee calling Woodward and Bernstein
>> "Woodstein").
>
> "Chesterbelloc" is a venerable one.
I'd never heard that one before, but thanks for bringing it up. It led
me to a great editorial about Chesterton and Belloc.
http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Dossier/1998-05-06/chesterbelloc.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/dobr6
--
Maria Conlon