I'm very well aware that t.u. has miraculously produced a few military officers in its past as I was also once an officer in the USAF. However, the point I was making earlier as to the origins of "teasip" speaks to the generalization that t.u. is mostly made up of frat daddies who didn't choose to serve their country during any conflict, whereas A&M's history begins with a school full of nothing but officers-to-be.

I guess "tea sipper" is prety old. When I started in 1943, I can't recall anyone asking where the expression came from. We also called them cookie pushers. Prior to the tU game, freshman put on rouge and lipstick. I vaguely remember the yell: "lend me your powder puff, sweet cherry phosphate; son of a gun Lizzie!"

darbonneaggie- What was the hand sign for that?

I think the yell was called "Ladies". I believe the yell leaders would pull on the sides off their pants much like a girl would pull on the sides of her skirt.

Wow, that is hilarious.

Thank you.

The story I've been told was that in 1920 A&M Freshman coach Frank Anderson in his pregame speech to inspire his Fish to beat the shorthorns told his players "You're rough and tough and you can beat those boys at Texas because they're not. They're just a buncha ... buncha ... teasippers!"
Back in those days "teasipper" was a common term applied to all males who were considered to be "light in the loafers".

This is the original meaning before it was applied to tu students:

quote:

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Tea-sip n.
A person who is not from Texas. Formed by clipping.
[Clipping from compound of “tea” + “sipper”]
"He’s one of those tea-sips from the North." -, on an unattributed day.
Reason used: The word was used to describe non-Texans in an informal and humorous way. Texans supposedly being more robust than people from other places, it makes a certain kind of sense to identify non-Texans as people who are somehow less tough, the kind of people who would sip tea with little cups and saucers. The words “tea” and “sipper”, being used together, became the compound “tea-sipper”. This was then clipped to just “tea-sip”.

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Kinda interesting- looks like the term was first invented to poke fun at the fact they were more snobbish, and later the part about not serving in WWII was brought into it.

I wonder when the change took place- as evidenced on this thread, it's fairly prevalent now. Most Ags I know personally have offered the WWII explanation (but they're almost certainly new army as I'm a sip who graduated in '03).

Can anyone who went to A&M in the 50s or 60s weigh in on what they were told?

[This message has been edited by tallgrant (edited 11/16/2006 6:17p).]

Found this, which traces the written use of the term back many decades. But it's ultimately unknown: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2007-October/075065.html.

Here's an explanation from tu: https://www.texaslsn.org/origin-and-story-of-the-longhorn-teapots.