No more "Voldie" nickname?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 98685

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mikefeemster" 
<mikefeemster at y...> wrote:

mike feemster:
> Hello All,
> 
> I think this is one of those cases where there is a loss of
> translation from American English to British English. In my
> encounters with people who speak British English, they are more
> precise and proper. Americans on the other hand, take great delight
> in butchering the language for their own purposes.
> 
> I can give an example of what I'm talking about if you think
> about the current and previous American president. If you do not
> like George Bush and you are with like minded people, you could
> always refer to the president as "Georgie". Likewise if you didn't
> like Bill Clinton, he could be refered to as "Billy".
> These are not meant to be terms of endearments, but terms of
> loathing and disrespect.

Geoff:
I was having a think about your comments while walking the dog in 
glorious West of England sunshine an hour or so ago. I'd overlooked 
the suggestion you make but it is quite right that we, here in the 
UK, tend to do things like that; a couple of instances occurred to me.

In the late 18th/early 19th century, Napoleon who, at that time 
occupied most of Western Europe, was known to us as "Boney" and it 
was quite common in the late 1940s/early 1950s to see Stalin being 
referred to as "Uncle Joe" and these weren't meant as plaudits.