Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

Did The Yale Banger fizzle?

The first US national college fraternity (Greek) is usually said to be
Alpha Sigma Phi, stemming from a chapter at Yale founded in the 1840s.
That chapter had a rival, Kappa Sigma Theta, which was primarily a
grouping of the sophomore class according to this web excerpt:

"...The rivalry spilled over into print, as Kappa Sigma Theta
attacked the new society [Alpha Sigma Phi] in The Yale Banger. The name
"banger" came from the device that sophomores used to torment
freshmen. When sophomores would go out, usually en mass, these gangers,
or clubs, would be dragged along the ground as a warning to any
freshman in the neighborhood.   Theoretically, The Yale Banger had been
the paper of the sophomore class, but in actuality, it was the voice of
Kappa Sigma Theta. In response, Alpha Sigma Phi began publishing The
Yale Tomahawk in November 1847...."
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:s6ZImtQDvHwJ:orgs.salisbury.edu/asp/Our_Heri
tage.ppt+%22Yale+Banger%22+%22Kappa+Sigma+Theta%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

The OED2 credits The Yale Banger with the first usage of a peculiarly
US sense of "fizzle:"

3. fig.  a. intr. (chiefly U.S. colloq.) To fail, make a fiasco, come
to a lame conclusion; in U.S. college slang, to fail in a recitation or
examination. Also, to fizzle away, out

  1847 Yale Banger 22 Oct. in Hall Coll. Words & Cust. (1851) 130 My
dignity is outraged at beholding those who fizzle and flunk in my
presence tower above me.

I couldn't find an earlier usage - an interesting essay on words
from 1849 mentions this sense:

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&
root=%2Fmoa%2Famwh%2Famwh0009%2F&tif=00276.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cor
nell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABL5306-0009-57

   * Idioms and Provincialisms of the English Language  o p. 260 1
match of 'fizzle'   in:
The American Whig review. / Volume 9, Issue 15  Mar 1849  "...to
fizzle out  ..."

I also couldn't find out what happened to The Yale Banger or that
Kappa Sigma Theta chapter - did they fizzle out?  (An aside that is
something of a parallel, apparently:  I once worked for Marcor
Corporation, an entity that withered away in a few short years; the
word "marcor" comes from Latin and has had its main usage as a term
of pathology meaning emaciation.)

Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego