Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 10:14     Subject: Re:Pronouncing ROTC
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.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 02:13     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
Husband was ROTC at Georgetown (GW actually as GT didn’t have its own program). Calls it Rotsy.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 00:52     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
It’s mostly spelled out. I’ve heard it the other way, but more as a one off.

-USMC AND USN family
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 00:43     Subject: Re:Pronouncing ROTC
DH did ROTC 15+ years ago and has always pronounced it “rotsy”. He is Air Force fwiw.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 00:39     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
I've always heard both. Not sure about the hierarchy associated with the different pronunciations though.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 00:29     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
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
Post 09/13/2020 00:28     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
Always spelled the letters.
Anonymous
Post 09/13/2020 00:26     Subject: Re:Pronouncing ROTC
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
Post 09/12/2020 23:26     Subject: Re:Pronouncing ROTC
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
Post 09/12/2020 23:21     Subject: Re:Pronouncing ROTC
I was in "Rotsy" at the 1st program formed in the nation. That's how we said it there so legit I say!
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2020 23:19     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
My military bros used to pronounce it as ROTK. like "rot-ke" . Apparently the only true hardcore military way to say it.
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2020 23:17     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
Agree with PP. I grew up with friends in ROTC who referred to it as rotsy.
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2020 23:13     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
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
Post 09/12/2020 23:12     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
“Rotsy” seems to be the preferred pronunciation of the officer class.
Anonymous
Post 09/12/2020 23:10     Subject: Pronouncing ROTC
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.