I must have been in a Rip Van Winkle 20-year sleep, but somehow I missed learning why Bush is called “Dubyea.”
Where did this come from and/or what does it mean?
It’s supposed to to be a southern pronunciation of the letter W. Which, of course is Bush’s middle initial.
It’s “Dubya.” As in a Texan pronunciation of “double-you,” as in his middle initial, W.
George W. Bush, as distinguished from his father George H. W. Bush.
The “W” is pronounced “dubya” by some people (particularly Texans?).
I also believe it’s a family nickname. I think I heard his father refer to him that way once.
It’s so you don’t confuse George W. “W” Bush with George H.W. “G-Dawg Killa-face Pimp Masta fo Rizzeal” Bush.
But I believe that’s how Bush himself pronounces it, right?
In the early days of his presidency, I was so confused, because I’d see “Dubya” printed all over the place, but had no idea who it was. I thought that people were talking about some sort of esoteric foreign dictator or something, especially since most of the things I saw about him were angry. It was probably a year into the presidency that I realized they were referring to “W,” our president, and not some Sri Lankan Guerilla Leader.
When he was governor of Texas, he often signed memos with just the W. Some staffers called him that, and it was all right with him.
These days, it’s mostly his detractors who call him that. It’s hard to say when the transition took place.
The earliest I remember hearing it was on Conan O’Brien. He would say “I like to call him ‘Dubya’,” but I doubt he (or his writers) coined it.
Thomas Pynchon uses “Dubya” as a nickname for a “W” named character in his 1990 novel Vineland. I’d be surprised if it hasn’t been around for a very long time.
For a while, I didn’t understand “Shrub.”
Are there people who, in conversation, would pronounce the letter as “double-yoo” as opposed to “dubya”? That sounds like an affectation to me, the same kind of person who would say “wed-nes-day” or “feb-ru-ary”.
Having said it several times to myself just now, the nearest I can say is that in casual speech, I seem to say “dubba-you”.
I’ve noticed though that quite commonly Southern (or any other “disreputable”) accents are spelled by just giving a phonetic spelling of words, even when those words aren’t pronounced particularly differently from the standard dialect. I’m sure some folks around here say “dubya” for “double-you” and have no trace of a southern accent.
I have always said “double you,” beginning when I first learned the alphabet song. And I would never say “wed-nes-day” (or even “weddens-day”). But I do say “feb-ru-ary,” and a lot of people I know do as well.