barbarake
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posted on December 1, 2000 03:43:16 AM new
I have seen George W. Bush referred to by the nickname 'Dubya' quite frequently. But I don't know to what it refers. Anyone care to enlighten me?
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donny
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posted on December 1, 2000 03:57:32 AM new
It's a corruption of his middle initial, "W," which he uses to distinguish himself from his father who's known as George Bush.
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lswanson
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posted on December 1, 2000 06:48:02 AM new
Donny is right on track. I was raised in Texas and New Mexico. "Dubya" is what most of the people in this region call a "w". I was probably in in the fourth grade or beyond when I realized realized that it was supposed to be "double-u".
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brighid868
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posted on December 1, 2000 08:16:11 AM new
This is REALLY stupid of me, but since I don't watch television and rarely listen to radio, I was only reading, not hearing, the name "Dubya" for a long time. I could NOT figure out why an All American Boy like George W. Bush would have a Russian nickname!!! Dubya is (doob'-ya) is a nickname for longer russian names. I worked with a guy named Dubya Rodov once.
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plsmith
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posted on December 2, 2000 08:32:33 PM new
Well, since nobody brought it up, and since you probably don't care anymore -- chatboard time being the accellerated thing that it is -- I'll suggest that syndicated (Texas-based) newspaper columnist Molly Ivins coined the moniker, "Dubya". I *do* know that I've seen her use it, and she is *definitely* capable of having come up with it...
btw, MizMolly is due for a Pulitzer Prize
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krs
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posted on December 2, 2000 10:16:18 PM new
Sure, and she was probably Barbara Bush's midwife seer giving prenatal care for the pending shrub.
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chococake
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posted on December 3, 2000 10:01:33 AM new
It took me a while to figure it out too. Sometimes southern terms and pronounciations are like a foreign language to me. In the beginning I was thinking it meant something like dufus, as in dumb.
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jps
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posted on December 3, 2000 01:52:15 PM new
plsmith -- way up here in the NW I have long been a Molly Ivans fan -- one very sharp woman!
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krs
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posted on December 3, 2000 04:21:30 PM new
oxymoron
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hellcat
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posted on December 3, 2000 05:18:04 PM new
KRS, if you think "sharp woman" is an oxymoron...do come on over, and let me hoist you on a petard. Old Buzzard on a stick.
Beth
[email protected]
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krs
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posted on December 3, 2000 05:27:51 PM new
I'd go with sharp-tongued where I you.
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dejavu
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posted on December 3, 2000 05:41:30 PM new
meow
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barbarake
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posted on December 3, 2000 05:43:25 PM new
Well, no wonder I never figured it out. I was mentally pronouncing it with a long 'U' sound. Saying it with a 'uh' sound does sound like saying 'W' fast. Thanks everyone.
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hellcat
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posted on December 3, 2000 06:58:38 PM new
Ken, if it's your tongue that's sharp, it could be put to use, eh?
[email protected]
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roadsmith
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posted on December 3, 2000 08:36:43 PM new
Molly Ivins, I believe, was indeed the first to call George W. "Dubya." She is a Goddess.
Do you know where Shrub came from as a nickname for George W. Bush? Molly Ivins' book "Shrub" tells us that he thought he'd be real cool and name his oil company the Spanish word for "Bush." But the name (I don't have it right here) is really the word for "shrub," not "bush." Hence a new nickname for the darling man.
Someone at this site has called George W. "Duhhhhh-bya." And I do agree.
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lotsafuzz
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posted on December 3, 2000 09:09:15 PM new
I live in New Mexico, right on the boarder of Texas (El Paso....neither state really wants to claim it). Anyway, just so you eastern type folk don't get the wrong idea: Most people around here say "double-u" (unless speaking of the Shrub).
I don't know if Molly Ivins was the first to call Bush Dubya, but the first time I saw it was in one of her writings.
As a simi-related topic: Both Ma and Pa Bush call Jeb 'Jebbie'.....isn't that cute. LOL
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lswanson
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posted on December 4, 2000 05:40:09 AM new
Lotsafuzz, where were you in the first grade? I was in El Paso ('63), and there were NO double-Us to be heard anywhere. Even Volkswagens were called "V-dubyas." I'm glad to hear that education has come up a notch since then.
Where in NM are you? If you're in Las Cruces, I envy you.
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lotsafuzz
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posted on December 4, 2000 12:38:04 PM new
Actually, I am in Las Cruces! Born and raised here.
If you haven't been here for a few years, let me warn you, you won't believe how it has grown. They are turning HW70 into 4 lines both ways all the way up the pass.
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