Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 January 7

= January 7 =

Derogatory phrase "Mary" maricón
In response to some comments at WP:ANI, made reference to a Spanish word, marica, being the equivalent of both the "homophobic slur akin to "faggot" ", and "the English expression "sissy Mary"." I had never heard "sissy Mary" before and the only thing I could find was at Urban Dictionary and doesn't seem to have the same meaning as Bugs suggests. So what is meant by "sissy Mary". Also Bugs can you clarify what you mean by the phrase "English expression". I think you mean a US English expression. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 05:17, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * American English, I suppose. And not something I've heard recently. But watch this clip from Blazing Saddles (1974) and you'll understand. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Bugs, for that clip, hadn't seen it in years. Calling a man a Mary in American English has only one meaning in my experience, but it is an obsolescent term at best.  The Spanish maricón "big Mary" is a lot more frequently heard than Marica "little Mary". μηδείς (talk) 18:14, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Its been a long time since I saw that film. I didn't realise that I had heard the phrase before. CambridgeBayWeather, Uqaqtuq (talk), Sunasuttuq 11:29, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Calling a man by a woman's name is almost always a homophobic slur. Mary is very common, but so are "Sally" and "Nancy".  I.E. William Rufus King, the reputed lover of U.S. President James Buchanan was derided as "Nancy".  -- Jayron 32 16:29, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Or at least a challenge to their manhood. Wasn't Robert E. Lee, no less, known to some as "Old Granny"? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 16:55, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Maria is used respectably as a second given boy's name in some Catholic countries, and some girls have Jose as a middle name (e.g. Maria Jose Dupre).  Redirect for Jose Marinho, anyone? 86.149.13.55 (talk) 17:17, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, but that's a different nuance. The combination Jose Maria is pretty common, e.g. José María López. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:35, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Few, if any names, are universally gendered, one can come up with many examples of people of one gender with names stereotypically associated with the other: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Michael Learned, A Boy Named Sue, etc. -- Jayron 32 17:22, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * There was a scene in the TV sitcom The King of Queens. One guy was challenging another guy to an eating competition.  (The food was egg rolls.)  The first guy walks into the scene and says "What's going on here?"  Another guy says, "We're having an egg roll eating contest" and he points to the table where the food was placed.  A guy who is seated at the table points to an empty chair and he says to the first guy: "That's your seat, Mary."  I always thought that was odd.  I never heard that before.  And I assumed the seated guy was calling the other guy a "sissy" or such.    Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:06, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Great Britain and UK.
Many years ago, products where labelled 'Made in Great Britain' or otherwise. But since when did the acronym 'U.K' became commonplace? --Histerncistern (talk) 18:07, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Google Ngrams suggests it started picking up steam in the 1970s. Acronyms in general weren't very common before WWII - they were military/government slang that gradually worked their way into society - and "United Kingdom" wasn't especially relevant at a time when the world was full of united kingdoms. Also might be worth noting that the 1970s was the time of the Troubles (and an increasing awareness that the United Kingdom wasn't just Great Britain). Smurrayinchester 19:02, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Here's a slightly better version of the Ngram chart that shows the total use of all synonyms for the UK - interestingly, "Britain" has stayed fairly stable ("Great Britain" has fallen a bit) but "UK" has made large gains apparently at the cost of "England". Also interesting but not surprising is that total usage of synonyms for the UK has been basically flat for a century... but there was a huge spike during WWII. Smurrayinchester 16:06, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Also, the UK - not Great Britain - has since 1973 been a member state of the European Union, to which specific regulations are applied. Ghmyrtle (talk) 19:13, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Officially the United Kingdom is represented by the letter combination "GB" in the international country code standard (although "UK" is also reserved). Smurrayinchester 19:28, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * And GBR for the List of IOC country codes. -- Jayron 32 20:06, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Poor old Ukraine.

Meaning of a Scientific latin name
Hello! I am not sure whether this is a Science or Language Desk question, but I shall ask anyway. What does the scientific name 'Euphrictus' mean? I cannot find anything on it, but if you can then please give me the source of it. Thanks for reading, Megaraptor12345 (talk) 18:41, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I can't easily find a source, either, but it's pretty clearly a compound of Greek εὖ (eu, "well") and φρικτός (phriktos, "to be shuddered at"), probably intended to mean something like "thoroughly horrible". Hirst's original description of the genus is here, but it doesn't mention how he came up with the name. Deor (talk) 19:32, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Deor! Do you think I could include that in an article or not (without a source)? Megaraptor12345 (talk) 19:40, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Personally, I'd make a great effort to resist adding my bit of original research to an article. I've seen far worse go uncontested, though. Deor (talk) 20:47, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you! Megaraptor12345 (talk) 21:03, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

What is a gubbins
What is a "gubbins"? Is this same and the origin of British names such as John Harington Gubbins and Nathaniel Gubbins? Garage told me my old car needed "radical fettling of all the gubbins". I think fettling is meaning fixing. Thank you. 217.38.191.74 (talk) 22:30, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * A quick look at Google suggests it's roughly a synonym for gadgets and/or "bits and pieces". In short, he wasn't telling you anything specific. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 22:37, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * (ec) Miscellaneous stuff of little value - see gubbins and Collins dictionary, which says it derives from 'gobbon'. Mikenorton (talk) 22:38, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Same kind of usage as Doohickey, Thingamajig, Thingamebob, and many others. Akld guy (talk) 08:31, 8 January 2016 (UTC)
 * According to Ancestry.com, the Gubbins surname is a variation on Gibbons, Gibb and ultimately, the personal name Gilbert. So no connection.  Rojomoke (talk) 09:28, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * See placeholder name. Alansplodge (talk) 10:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)