On language, Princeton style: The 'Wa

Upon witnessing a freshman girl hang her head in disappointment as she watched the metal gate of Frist's food area close, I tried to offer consolation and said, "Just go to the Wa." She stared back at me in confusion. "The Wa?" she asked. I knew I was introducing her to greatness.

Wa is a shortening of Wawa, the 24-hour supermarket in Forbesland. Customers are always greeted by the exclamatory headlines of flyers and advertisements covering the message pillars that flank the entrance. Just beyond the door, several university banners and the inevitable scent that seems to live in all quickie-mart locales let Princeton students know that they have indeed come to the right place.

When asked about the meaning of 'Wa,' some students nostalgically recall Icees in impossible flavors: "It's crazy because, you know, raspberries aren't blue. It's just so good." Others hear the word and automatically think of the electronic ordering process for the subs and sandwiches, the joy with which they pick exactly what they want on that "sweet touch screen." Still others reflect lovingly on the no-nonsense employee, Karim, who is always up for late-night banter as long as it doesn't interfere with his uncanny ability to keep a long line moving with that simple but forceful "Next!"

The full original name of Princeton's convenience store is not, in fact, a silly pronunciation of water or the last name of everyone's favorite 20/20 reporter. It is the product of a history and tradition far richer than that of Store 24 or Stop 'n Shop. Founded in 1803, Wawa began as a dairy farm in Wawa, Pennsylvania, and the word actually means Canada Goose in the language of a local Native American tribe. Although Wawas can be found not only in New Jersey but also in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, it seems that the abbreviation Wa is indigenous to Princeton. For example, Penn students who claimed to hold a special place in their hearts for the establishment were unfamiliar with the term Wa.

No one really knows when Wawa was first abridged and 'Wa' came into being. The most likely chronological approximation would be somewhere between the time when Rockefeller College became "Rocky" and Butler College became "The Butt," and probably within the era of the transformation of 'advisees' to ''zees.' Wa seems to follow the general rule created by our verbally economical — and by that I mean lazy — students of cutting out any extraneous parts of words or phrases. And so it came to pass that we got rid of the repetition of the first half of Wawa as fast as we dropped Prospect from 'the Street.'

Short and snappy as it is, even the monosyllabic Wa has managed to evolve. No longer a simple noun, Wa is occasionally used as a verb and can frequently be heard in post-eating-club chant parody lyrics such as "From the window, to the Wa."

Some have tried to rival the Wa. We're all familiar with the non-Bono-affiliated on-campus store that recently went 24-hour and challenges the Wa with its equally short two-character name. But are there Icees at said University Store? No. Touchscreen sub orders? No again. Karim? I don't think so. You won't ever hear the words "are you a member" at the Wa, where everyone belongs from the moment they pass through those glass doors. As long as I'm laying on the schmaltz here, let's go all out: it seems such a simple word but for us, but Wa is so much more than a convenient name for a convenience store. Laura Berner is a sophomore from Rye, N.Y. She can be reached at lberner@princeton.edu.