NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Poll: Beetlejuice or Bettlegherz
From: David Pike
Date: 2016 Jul 12, 00:59 -0700
From: David Pike
Date: 2016 Jul 12, 00:59 -0700
Count me as a Beetle Juice
I’m sure there must be a name for when a ‘native’ name is suddenly encountered by a large group of newcomers who anglicise it to make it more ‘friendly’ in their own tongue. E.g. in WW1 the BEF soon began calling the town of Ypres Wipers. There are many more examples which frequently originated within the armed forces, although I can’t recall an unrisqué example at the moment. It’s easy to see how a group of trainees upon encountering star recognition for the first time might convert Betelgeuse to Beetle Juice. DaveP
