Cornelia 84 - 68 (he risked his career in refusing to divorce her at the order of Sulla after her family was involved in a revolt. The marriage ended when she died.)
Pompeia 69? - 62? (divorced by Caesar after a male friend showed up at a woman-only religious rite at Caesar’s house–I suspect that the “above reproach” comment originated in this incident)
Calpurnia 59 - 44 (marriage ended in Caesar’s assassination)
Caesar “dallied with” Cleopatra around 47, but never divorced Calpurnia, that I am aware.
Hmm… I always thought the other way around. Saying Por-sha (two syllables) sounds flowery and pretentious.
Though mostly, I say “porsh” because I’m lazy. Besides, I don’t much care for that brand of sports car anyway. 911s look like Karmen Ghias and all the others look like cars with huge butts…
How so? You’re only dropping one syllable, and it requires no effort to say. Sure, you’re only dropping one syllable from “Chevrolet”; but you’re replacing the second. That is, we don’t say “Chevro”; or “Bee-em-double” (or “Bay-em” instead of “Bay-em-vay”) for that matter. Anyway, I doubt you’d ever find a German who dropped the “e” in “Porsche”. I’d say the mispronunciation is an error (not to mention insulting to the people whose name it is).
I have a confession to make though: I’ve had four semesters of German, and I’ve owned Porsches on two occasions. To my ear, a person who says “Porsh” sounds ignorant of the rules of the German language. “Porsh” for “Porsche” ranks right there with “noo-kyoo-lur” for “nuclear”. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter; but it still bugs me.
Almost every Porsche owner I know refers to their car by its proper name. But, I don’t own one, nor do I speak German so I call it by its nickname. If I yelled hey look a “porsch-eh” every time I saw one I would come off as pretentious and effete. Also, My name is David, make it one syllable and its Dave, which I prefer. It works for Mercedes-Benz too, which are also known (in the States at least) as a Merc or a Benz. Making a word monosyllabic is a common way of making a nickname for it. Do you really think Dr. Porsche is insulted that people shorten his name? As for the company, as long as you have the cash I’m sure they would let you call their car Shirley if you wanted.
I did some googling and I couldn’t find anything to back up that claim. Perhaps a more in-depth search would turn something up. I still think it’s possible that Porsche’s family is apathetic or even flattered by the bastardization and incorporation of their family name into a foreign lexicon. Especially, in a massive consumer base like America. Expensive products like sports cars are targeted to an educated, upper-class market, people likely to know things such as the proper German pronunciation of “Porsche.” I’m guessing the other four fifths of the population (and I think that’s a conservative estimation) use the vernacular.
Robot Arm, I didn’t know that, but I do know that Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts use that nickname also.