Pronouncing ROTC

[Anonymous]

I’ve always pronounced ROTC as Rotsy. So did the rest of my family, many of whom participated in school. I was discussing ROTC with some friends and none of them had ever heard the rotsy pronunciation. They all only ever spell out the letters (which I’ve of course heard before too). Is saying it Rotsy just a local thing where I’m from? A dated thing I’ve held on to? Had you ever heard it? Just curious.

[Anonymous]

“Rotsy” seems to be the preferred pronunciation of the officer class.

[Anonymous]

I had several friends in it in high school, FIL did it at UVA, and we currently live in a big military town. I’ve heard it both ways, and would guess that people who haven’t heard “Rotsy” haven’t been very closely associated with it.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. I grew up with friends in ROTC who referred to it as rotsy.

[Anonymous]

My military bros used to pronounce it as ROTK. like "rot-ke" . Apparently the only true hardcore military way to say it.

[Anonymous]

I was in "Rotsy" at the 1st program formed in the nation. That's how we said it there so legit I say!

[Anonymous]

My dad was ROTC. He never uses "rotsy" and always says the individual letters.

One of my dad's best friends also was ROTC. The two achieved notably high ranks in their branches of service, which is pretty much unheard of since there is (used to be?) a significant bias in favor of academy graduates. The friend and his children also always use the individual letters when they discuss ROTC.

I don't mean to be unkind but in our collective experiences, we think of "rotsy" as slang and that someone who uses "rotsy" is trying to be the hipster cool kid. Others may have different experiences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad was ROTC. He never uses "rotsy" and always says the individual letters.

One of my dad's best friends also was ROTC. The two achieved notably high ranks in their branches of service, which is pretty much unheard of since there is (used to be?) a significant bias in favor of academy graduates. The friend and his children also always use the individual letters when they discuss ROTC.

I don't mean to be unkind but in our collective experiences, we think of "rotsy" as slang and that someone who uses "rotsy" is trying to be the hipster cool kid. Others may have different experiences.

Same. My dad was an ROTC professor and neither he nor his fellow ROTC officers ever said “rotsie.” I heard someone do it once and asked him about it and his was dismissive but didn’t say why. It could be regional or branch specific (my dad was army).

[Anonymous]

Always spelled the letters.

[Anonymous]

The first time I heard it not spelled out I had no idea what they were talking about. Rotsy sounds terrible. Like you thought it was a word instead of acronym.

[Anonymous]

I've always heard both. Not sure about the hierarchy associated with the different pronunciations though.

[Anonymous]

DH did ROTC 15+ years ago and has always pronounced it “rotsy”. He is Air Force fwiw.

[Anonymous]

It’s mostly spelled out. I’ve heard it the other way, but more as a one off.

-USMC AND USN family

[Anonymous]

Husband was ROTC at Georgetown (GW actually as GT didn’t have its own program). Calls it Rotsy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad was ROTC. He never uses "rotsy" and always says the individual letters.

One of my dad's best friends also was ROTC. The two achieved notably high ranks in their branches of service, which is pretty much unheard of since there is (used to be?) a significant bias in favor of academy graduates. The friend and his children also always use the individual letters when they discuss ROTC.

I don't mean to be unkind but in our collective experiences, we think of "rotsy" as slang and that someone who uses "rotsy" is trying to be the hipster cool kid. Others may have different experiences.

Same. My dad was an ROTC professor and neither he nor his fellow ROTC officers ever said “rotsie.” I heard someone do it once and asked him about it and his was dismissive but didn’t say why. It could be regional or branch specific (my dad was army).

Maybe it's generational.

My friends in the program in college called it ROTSY. It was several weeks into freshman year before I realized that they were in ROTC and not some other program I never heard of!

A couple are still military now, fairly high up twenty years later. I believe they still refer to friends they meet in ROTSY.