Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 09:54:12 -0500
From: Donald Larmouth LARMOUTD[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]GBMS01.UWGB.EDU
Subject: Re: -head
I suppose I'm obliged to point out that Packer fans are not the only
cheeseheads in Wisconsin; the term also refers to fans of the UW-Green Bay
men's basketball team. The UWGB pep band wore cheeseheads to our first NCAA
Division I tournament appearance and have worn them at subsequent appearances
in NCAA tournament games. Sportscasters covering UWGB's play against the likes
of Syracuse and California also used "cheesehead" to refer to UWGB fans.
The mascot of UWGB is the phoenix, which produces its own curiosities, since
sportswriters don't know what to make of the team name (e. g., phoenixes?).
Locally, the usual collective reference is "the phoenix" with plural verb
forms: "the UWGB Phoenix are hoping . . ." So far, I have not heard the
singular back-formation */finIk/ as in one */finIk/ two /finIks/.
I'll add "bubblehead" to the list of -head words. However, a bubblehead is not
a person; it's a type of dry fly in which deer hair is tied forward over the
hook eye and then pulled back and tied down, forming a "bubble" of deer hair
around the forward 1/4 of the hook shank. The resulting fly floats on the
surface, and its large head creates a fish-attracting disturbance which
twitched.
DWL