Topic Originator: onandupthepars
Date: Tue 9 Jan 21:41
I was thinking about how “Paraytics/Paraletics” could have become shortened to “Pars”. And it reminded me of a post by fcda, (1) who thought it odd that it wasn’t shortened to, e.g., “Paras.”
Could our supporters have shortened it when talking to each other? Would that have been natural?
In old newspapers, journalists often shortened the word “Paragraphs” to “Pars.” It was natural for journalists to do that in writing - could our nickname have got shortened by a journalist writing it?
As for who was the unkind critic, East Ender referred to, that ‘dubbed’ us ‘Paralytics’ - apparently, journalists often gave nicknames to teams, baseball teams at least:
‘Few teams before 1900 had names, and adopting them only really caught on in the first decades of the 20th century. Team nicknames like the "Boston Beaneaters" and "Brooklyn Bridegrooms" were never official; they were the invention of inventive sportswriters. A few of these coinages actually did catch hold with the contemporary fan base, such as "Robins" and "Browns," and some remained popular long enough to be adopted officially, like "Giants" and "Pirates;" but many of the others were either ephemeral quips, like "Rustlers" and "Ruby Legs," or never existed at all, like "Pilgrims." ‘(2)
Maybe names such as these were ‘dubbed’ by journalists?:
Cowdenbeath Knuts, Dunfermline Shopkeepers, ‘The Fairies’ (Fairfield), ‘The Pansies’ (Dundee? Violet) (3) &(4)
Might someone have called us “Paralytics” when we only had a Junior team? (1893-96?) If so, would the nickname be likely to have caught on? (1893 would give a few lean years before, and a few after, for it to stick.) (5)
An example of a name given as an insult by an outsider, that did catch on:
Philadelphia Athletics (U.S. baseball team):
‘In 1902, John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants…sarcastically referred to [the Philadelphia] club as a `white elephant`. A Philadelphia newspaperman labeled the Athletics the White Elephants…’
They were also known as ‘the A’s.’
‘The 1905 World Series pitted the Giants against the A`s, and before the first game the A`s captain presented a small white elephant toy to McGraw, photos capturing one of the few times McGraw was caught grinning.’
‘…The elephant logo first appeared on uniforms in 1918, and evolved into a circus elephant of varying colors…’(6)
(1) Post by fcda, Fri 16 Dec 2022, 17:43, on Istvan Kozma thread: ‘Re: Pars? Volume 3 – The end in sight?,
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_team_nicknames
(3) & (4) JUNIOR CHAT... BY “OLD BHOY.” The Evening Telegraph and Post [Dundee Evening Telegraph], Tuesday 18 March 1913, page 5. Accessed at British Newspaper Archive.
(5) JOHN HUNTER, Dunfermline Athletic Football Club A Centenary History 1885-1985, p.14.
(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_team_nicknames
Post Edited (Tue 09 Jan 21:46)
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