why did banshee change to mantis?

i was just wondering why did they change the banshees name to the mantis i love the mantis an all but i think that the banshee sounds like a pretty cool name dont you.
does anyone know why they changed it?

Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but I think they changed the name because they got some negative press about it being a ethnic slur. I think the name change was a good one though.

Jeff L

Oh Muh gawd. Banshee was changed because of the definition of the name. The best thing to do is to look at past discusions

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Millennium Force Ride Count:0

Well, I did say correct me if I am wrong. It is considered a vulgar term though.

Here we go again...

THE OFFICIAL REASON:
A "Banshee" is a Celtic spirit which comes and wails at the window when somebody is about to die. Cedar Point was unaware of this when they first chose the name, and decided to change it because they did not like the connotation of impending death. When the change was announced, the park mentioned that they had NOT received complaints about it.

THE PROBLEM WITH THAT REASON:
Since when does Cedar Point make any decision without researching it first? The decision to run the Summer Sucktacular at closing time excepted, of course; that show was not supposed to be that popular.

THE RUMORED REASON:
Somebody connected with Cedar Point did not like the name. Possibly someone whose last name begins with a "K".

ANOTHER POSSIBLE ANGLE:
Just for grins, I did a trademark search at the time to see what I could find. In fact, I found a registry for "Banshee" in one of the categories Cedar Point would have registered...registered to Landmark Entertainment Group. That registration is gone now, and to the best of my knowledge, no Landmark project using the name has opened.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
*** This post was edited by RideMan on 4/5/2000. ***

Cedar Point does not have a space problem.

Oops, sorry, wrong thread again. :)

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Timothy A. Bretz
"Remember to pillage before you burn"
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tabretz

"A "Banshee" is a Celtic spirit which comes and wails at the window when somebody is about to die."

Haven't any of these people seen the movie "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" ?

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Timothy A. Bretz
"Remember to pillage before you burn"
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/t

If you belive the impending death thing, then that might have hyped some people up about the ferocity of the coaster. High G's, tight turns, etc.

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Monster Ride Host
2nd Year

ever heard the phrase "screaming like a Banshee"? i think it was meant to imply something like that, but the GP may or may not be familiar with that particular saying...

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"I think I scrambled my brain!!"

I think Banshee is a VERY cool name for a coaster, even thought it means death. They should call Mean Streak, Banshee.

I think that Banshee is about as "scary" of a name as Medusa is. *** This post was edited by CP_genius on 4/5/2000. ***

Is there any chance that anyone will ever look around this site for the answers to their questions first?

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Jeff
Webmaster/Guide to The Point
"And he says 'I'm goin' crazy up there at the lake...'"

Wait, "banshee" is considered a vulgar term?!? Where and how? Maybe "sign of impending death" isn't quite the image Cedar Point was looking for on a ride, but I don't consider it vulgar.

Personally I think Banshee is a GREAT name for a coaster, and hope to see some park use the name at some point...

(To be honest, I don't see "Mantis" as being much better, given that it's a standup coaster. Here we have a ride that can inflict some serious pain on a guy if he happens to ride it "wrong", and they name it after an insect where the female devours the male after mating. Hmmm...)

Hey Greg, look it up on websters dictionary online. *** This post was edited by screechnowl on 4/6/2000. ***

I did: From www.websters.com:



ban·shee also ban·shie (bnsh).
n.

A female spirit in Gaelic folklore believed to presage, by wailing, a death in a family.

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[Irish Gaelic bean sídhe, woman of the fairies, banshee: bean, woman (from Old Irish ben); see gwen- in Indo-European Roots + sídhe, fairy (from Old Irish síde).]


Nothing vulgar there.

So let's see the reference:

gwen-
An important derivative is: queen.
Woman.


Suffixed form *gwen--.
quean, from Old English cwene, woman, prostitute, wife, from Germanic *kwenn-;
banshee, from Old Irish ben, woman;
zenana, from Persian zan, woman.



Ok, "prostitute" could be considered vulgar, but *it's not the same word*.

Actually I'm amused that an old form of "queen" meant prostitute. Heh...
*** This post was edited by GregLeg1 on 4/6/2000. ***

forgot to type the rest of it? huh?

I am not agreeing with it either just telling you what it said.

What "rest of it?" We must be looking at different pages.

I went to www.websters.com, and searched "Dictionary" for "banshee". The resulting page (http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=banshee) gave me 5 entries. In addition to the two I already copied (in their entirety) above, the other 3 are:

banshee \Ban"shee\, Banshie \Ban"shie\, n. [Gael. bean-s*h*i*t*h fairy; Gael. & Ir. bean woman + Gael. sith fairy.] A supernatural being supposed by the Irish and Scotch peasantry to warn a family of the speedy death of one of its members, by wailing or singing in a mournful voice under the windows of the house.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

banshee n : (Irish folklore) a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

banshee fantasma urlante che annuncia la morte[Noun]
Source: IDP Italian Dictionary


Ok, I don't know Italian, so for all I know that could mean "mistress for hire", but I suspect "morte" is related to death and/or spirits, as well.


All I'm saying is that I've never heard of "banshee" being considered a vulgar term before, and I still haven't seen anything that indicates otherwise. Heck, 3dfx called one of their graphics chipsets the Banshee, and nobody raised any complaints.


(Added *'s to allow a valid word past the "naughty word!" filter) *** This post was edited by GregLeg1 on 4/7/2000. ***

maybe when they said "Vulgar" they meant "derogatory" or "insulting", like when someone calls another person(usually of the female persuasion) a "banshee"....just a thought...
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"I think I scrambled my brain!!"

Gregleg1 said: "Ok, I don't know Italian, so for all I know that could mean "mistress for hire", but I suspect "morte" is related to death and/or spirits, as well."

Morte does mean death, it means that in french, but since italian is based off of latin, as is french, I'm assuming it means the same thing here. I really like the name Banshee, I think it was great, and I'm sad that it changed to mantis, even though mantis is a good name. Banshee just is a lot more intimidating, IMO. ohhh! a big scary ........BUG?!?!

When CP changed the name to Mantis, did they also change the color scheme?? This is one thing I cannot remember..

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"Its 242.9 miles to CedarPoint. We've got a full
tank of gas, half-pack of cigarettes, its night,
and we're wearing sunglasses!!"
Corey