# Winnie 'ther' Pooh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2010, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864 "2010-09-24T11:56:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/21 "2010-09-24T22:10:40Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > > [@jjimm](#): > > > > Fuck, didn’t notice it was **mittu** posting. > > > > Dude, you have some answers a lot of people are wanting to find out. > > > > Well, one in particular… > > I’m going on record to suggest that the last we hear of **mittu** in this thread was the OP. 😃 Well you are wrong 😉 However, no I still don’t know what the answer is/was/ever could be. The person who passed the question on to me is no longer in the same job and I now live several thousand miles away from him. Whoever it is that knows the answer is going to take it to their grave I think. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/22 "2010-09-24T22:27:59Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Whoever it is that knows the answer is going to take it to their grave I think. Serve him right, too. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/23 "2010-09-24T23:56:54Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > I thought it was just an emphasized form of _the_, with that British way of adding Rs that aren’t really Rs anyway. Like, in one of the E. Nesbit books, she has a girl named Anthea whose nickname is Panther, which she explains makes sense if you say it out loud. Well, it makes sense if you’re British and do that R thing–to an American kid it’s total nonsense. Other way round. Panther (by itself) would be pronounced the same as “pantha”. Unless it preceeds a word with a vowel (in which case Anthea also gains an “r”) ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/24 "2010-09-25T00:19:42Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Surely most English people are as familiar (possibly more familiar) with the “nonsense” meaning than the other meaning. What’s more, one’s an adjective and the other’s a noun. Should be pretty clear from context which meaning is intended. Fans of Chris Morris will also be familiar with the phrase [“talking Nonce Sense”.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcnQDYnGtS8) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/25 "2010-09-25T00:25:30Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > Surely most English people are as familiar (possibly more familiar) with the “nonsense” meaning than the other meaning. What’s more, one’s an adjective and the other’s a noun. Should be pretty clear from context which meaning is intended. [That’s nonce-sense.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NesjvRihbEg) 😉 Edit: Beaten like red-headed step-child ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/26 "2010-09-25T02:17:53Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Whoever it is that knows the answer is going to take it to their grave I think. Dig up their body, burn it, and salt the earth they are buried in. Then, sell their possessions, buy some precious metals, and take 14 kernels of gold in a fairly poor district of Detroit and spread their wealth to those who need it. Hey, I think I just solved it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alexsirpooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Alexsirpooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alexsirpooh)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/27 "2013-11-27T18:54:41Z")
I believe that Christopher Robin was trying to say Winnie-Sir-Pooh, but due to his lisp, it sounded like Winnie-Ther-Pooh. “Don’t you know what ther (sir) means”. They had spent some time in London & ‘sir’ would be common nomenclature for a little boy to describe a man. The stories should have probably always referred to Pooh as Winnie-Sir-Pooh, but the mistaken adult interpretation has resulted in him always being referred to as Winnie the Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/28 "2013-11-27T19:32:35Z")
Another Zombie Thread? Oh, Bother! ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/29 "2013-11-27T19:35:36Z")
Oh, look! Zombified just in time to link to [this](http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aLKp9GP_700b.jpg)! ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/30 "2013-11-27T19:53:00Z")
I’ve read P.G. Wodehouse stories where ‘r’ was used to indicate a dialectical pronunciation of open vowels, I think to show that the character pronounces them a little more forward in the mouth, e.g. “arf-parse” instead of “half-past”. In _Code Of The Wooster’s_, Constable Oates refers to the dog Bartholomew as a “vicious dorg not under proper control”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/31 "2013-11-27T19:59:35Z")
Since this is about a literary character, it is probably more suited to Cafe Society. Please note the thread was started in 2010. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/32 "2013-11-27T20:07:48Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > > [@Zeldar](#): > > > > > [@jjimm](#): > > > > > > Fuck, didn’t notice it was **mittu** posting. > > > > > > Dude, you have some answers a lot of people are wanting to find out. > > > > > > Well, one in particular… > > > > I’m going on record to suggest that the last we hear of **mittu** in this thread was the OP. 😃 > > Well you are wrong 😉 > > However, no I still don’t know what the answer is/was/ever could be. The person who passed the question on to me is no longer in the same job and I now live several thousand miles away from him. Whoever it is that knows the answer is going to take it to their grave I think. Well, maybe not this thread as such but > [@](#): > > Last Activity: 02-27-2012 04:49 AM Did I miss it where somebody got the answer to that confounded riddle/acronym/whatever it is? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/33 "2013-11-27T20:13:19Z")
> [@Alexsirpooh](#): > > I believe that Christopher Robin was trying to say Winnie-Sir-Pooh, but due to his lisp, it sounded like Winnie-Ther-Pooh. A very selective lisp, he had, only coming out on the word ‘sir’, as it does. Strange, too, that his father apparently didn’t know what ‘sir’ meant. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/34 "2013-11-27T20:14:35Z")
I’m flabbergasted that no one has offered the explanation that C.R. is simply thinking on his feet. And A.A. is simply going along with it to avoid having story time replaced with a temper tantrum. Also, it’s my understanding that the actual toy was named after human-interest-story bear in Canada, who went by the name “Winnipeg.” ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/35 "2013-11-27T21:03:55Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Well, maybe not this thread as such but > > Did I miss it where somebody got the answer to that confounded riddle/acronym/whatever it is? No. Someone had a co-worker who said they knew, but then they changed jobs and couldn’t ask. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/36 "2013-11-27T21:14:30Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m flabbergasted that no one has offered the explanation that C.R. is simply thinking on his feet. And A.A. is simply going along with it to avoid having story time replaced with a temper tantrum. I think that’s implied in the explanation that CR is just over-emphasizing ‘the’. > [@](#): > > Also, it’s my understanding that the actual toy was named after human-interest-story bear in Canada, who went by the name “Winnipeg.” Winnipeg was actually in the UK, when the Milnes saw her - London Zoo, specifically. Though she was originally captured in Canada, then bought and brought to the UK by some Canadian soldiers. [Winnie’s Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_the_Bear). ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/37 "2013-11-27T22:17:22Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Oh, look! Zombified just in time to link to [this](http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aLKp9GP_700b.jpg)! So wonderfully well worth it! Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/38 "2013-11-27T22:25:23Z")
> [@Alexsirpooh](#): > > I believe that Christopher Robin was trying to say Winnie-Sir-Pooh, but due to his lisp, it sounded like Winnie-Ther-Pooh. “Don’t you know what ther (sir) means”. They had spent some time in London & ‘sir’ would be common nomenclature for a little boy to describe a man. This doesn’t really make any more sense than “ther” because sir isn’t used that way. He’d be Sir Winnie in that case, not Winnie Sir Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/39 "2013-11-27T23:13:47Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Other way round. Panther (by itself) would be pronounced the same as “pantha”. Unless it preceeds a word with a vowel (in which case Anthea also gains an “r”) What’s the other way around? **dangermom** is saying that “Panther” to an American has a hard R at the end, but a Brit who is non-rhotic is going to make it rhyme with “An-the-uh”. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864/40 "2013-11-28T00:45:38Z")
> [@mittu](#): > > Does anybody know what ‘ther’ is supposed to mean? Is it a device used by the author to avoid having to explain things clearly or is there a known answer to this? My Google-fu is failing me on this one. It’s the word _the_, emphasized, with an R added by a non-rhotic speaker who has no intention of pronouncing it. It’s like the name Eeyore, which is onomatopoeia for the sound a donkey makes - that R isn’t supposed to be pronounced, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/winnie-ther-pooh/554864.md?page=3)