The informant presented me with the following account of an onomastic name for a statue at her high school:
This is about the penis statue at Phillips Academy Andover. Um, I did not name it thatI just wanna say that first of allI didnt even start calling it that until I almost left, even though I had been there. Essentially it was this statue that . . . it looks, it looks like . . . yeah, its prettyit looks like a penis! But its, um, its appropriate name is the Bicentennial Statue, and its, um, it was actually to cum, I guess, sculpted to commemorate the combination of, of I guess Phillips Academy with, um, Abbot Academy down the street. Um, Phillips academy was at the time an all male school, and, um, Abbot Academy was an all-female school. Um, and then they combined in 1978, Im pretty sure.
She says of the statues epithet, Um, it was kind of just used all the time, like, Oh, Ill meet you by the penis statue, or justthats what its called, no one called it the Bicentennial statue.
When asked when she would call the statue by its onomastic name, the informant said, I wouldnt, generally? Other people would justum, in general you try not to, um, tell that to, um, people who are visiting the school and are prospective students, you kinda just . . . you call it that to other students. You might mention it to a teacher, but thats a little morewhat? Whats it called? I, I wouldnt, personally, but some people are a little more loose with that kinda thing?
The informant doesnt entirely approve of the statues onomastic name: At first I just thought it was really stupid and immature, and, um, kind of as the years went on I started realizingfirst of all I figured out which statue they were actually talking about. And when I actually saw it, I was like, Okay. I guess I could see that. But like, its just really curious to me, like, why . . .
Theres a kind of poetic justice in the marriage of a girls school to a boys school being celebrated with a statue that looks like an erect penis, and that may be part of why, aside from the statues shape, the students gave it that particular onomastic name. If one subscribes to the theory that high school students are immature, then theres that explanation, too.