A Collection of College Words and Customs

The first edition of this publication was mostly compiled during the leisure hours of the last half-year of a Senior's collegiate life, and was presented anonymously to the publ...

ANNARUGIANS. At Centre College, Kentucky, is a society called the _Annarugians_, "composed," says a correspondent "of the wildest of the College boys, who, in the most fantastic...

B.D. An abbreviation for _Baccalaureus Divinitatis_, Bachelor in Divinity. In both the English Universities a B.D. must be an M.A. of seven years' standing, and at Oxford, a reg...

BOOTLICKER. A student who seeks or gains favor from a teacher by flattery or officious civilities; one who curries favor. A correspondent from Union College writes: "As you watc...

BURNING OF CONIC SECTIONS. "This is a ceremony," writes a correspondent, "observed by the Sophomore Class of Trinity College, on the Monday evening of Commencement week. The inc...

CAP. The cap worn by students at the University of Cambridge, Eng., is described by Bristed in the following passage: "You must superadd the academical costume. This consists of...

"On the 21st of June, 1798, the day of the dismission of the Senior Class from all academic exercises, the class met in the College chapel to attend the accustomed ceremonies of...

"A college, in the modern sense of that word, was an institution which arose within a university, probably within that of Paris or of Oxford first, being intended either as a ki...

"Now smoak the burning wheels along the ground, While rapid hoofs of flying steeds resound, The drivers by no vulgar flame inspir'd, But with the sparks of love and glory fir'd,...

The following excellent and interesting account of the exercises and customs of Commencement at Yale College, in former times, is taken from the entertaining address referred to...

Although much can be said in favor of the commons system, on account of its economy and its suitableness to health and study, yet these very circumstances which were its chief r...

Among the laws, rules, and scholastic forms established between the years 1642 and 1646, by Mr. Dunster, the first President of Harvard College, occurs the following: "Siquis sc...

All the colleges are constructed in quadrangles or _courts_; and, as in course of years the population of every college, except one,[18] has outgrown the original quadrangle, ne...

"The punishment of degradation," says President Woolsey, in his Historical Discourse before the Graduates of Yale College, "laid aside not very long before the beginning of the...

DORMIAT. Latin; literally, _let him sleep_. To take out a _dormiat_, i.e. a license to sleep. The licensed person is excused from attending early prayers in the Chapel, from a p...

Indeed they [fellow-commoners] are popularly denominated "_empty bottles_," the first word of the appellation being an adjective, though were it taken as a verb there would be n...

FAIR HARVARD. At the celebration of the era of the second century from the origin of Harvard College, which was held at Cambridge, September 8th, 1836, the following Ode, writte...

FISHING. The act performed by a _fisher_. The full force of this word is set forth in a letter from Dr. Popkin, a Professor at Harvard College, to his brother William, dated Bos...

FRESHMAN SERVITUDE. The custom which formerly prevailed in the older American colleges of allowing the members of all the upper classes to send Freshmen upon errands, and in oth...

"If any Freshman near the Time of Commencement shall fire the great Guns, or give or promise any Money, Counsel, or Assistance towards their being fired; or shall illuminate Col...

In America, the use of the phrase _he was graduated_, instead of _he graduated_, which has been of late so common, "is merely," says Mr. Bartlett in his Dictionary of Americanis...

At its second organization, the company was one of the finest and best drilled in the State. The members were from the Senior and Junior Classes. The armory was in the fifth sto...

I went back,... and did a few more bits of _illustration_, such as noting down the relative resources of Athens and Sparta when the Peloponnesian war broke out, and the sources...

"The surgeon's equipment is an ox-cart containing jars of drugs (most of them marked 'N.E.R.' and 'O.B.J.'), boxes of homoeopathic pills (about the size of a child's head), imme...

By the laws of 1734, the undergraduates were required to "declaim publicly in the hall, in one of the three learned languages; and in no other without leave or direction from th...

LOTTERY. The method of obtaining money by lottery has at different times been adopted in several of our American colleges. In 1747, a new building being wanted at Yale College,...

In American colleges, students who are found qualified on examination to enter usually join the class to which they are admitted, on probation, and are matriculated as members o...

MERIT ROLL. At Union College, "the _Merit Rolls_ of the several classes," says a correspondent, "are sheets of paper put up in the College post-office, at the opening of each te...

NESCIO. Latin; literally, _I do not know_. At the University of Cambridge, England, _to sport a nescio_, to shake the head, a signal that one does not understand or is ignorant...

PENNILESS BENCH. Archdeacon Nares, in his Glossary, says of this phrase: "A cant term for a state of poverty. There was a public seat so called in Oxford; but I fancy it was rat...

POPULARITY. In the college _use_, favor of one's classmates, or of the members of all the classes, generally. Nowhere is this term employed so often, and with so much significan...

"The Professor of Divinity, two ministers of the town, and another minister, having accompanied me to the Library about 1, P.M., the middle Tutor waited upon me there, and infor...

At Harvard and Yale Colleges, quarter-day, when the officers and instructors receive their quarterly salaries, was formerly observed as a holiday. One of the evils which prevail...

ROOT. A word first used in the sense given below by Dr. Paley. "He [Paley] held, indeed, all those little arts of underhand address, by which patronage and preferment are so fre...

The use of this verb is much more common in the United States than that of the noun of the same spelling, which is derived from it; for instance, we frequently read in the newsp...

I can say as well as the best on them _sheepskins_, if you don't get religion and be saved, you'll be lost, teetotally and for ever.--(_Sermon of an Itinerant Preacher at a Camp...

SMOKE. In some colleges, one of the means made use of by the Sophomores to trouble the Freshmen is to blow smoke into their rooms until they are compelled to leave, or, in other...

"For some years, students, as they have entered College, have been permitted to choose the society with which they would connect themselves, instead of being alphabetically allo...

THESES-COLLECTOR. One who collects or prepares _theses_. The following extract from the laws of Harvard College will explain further what is meant by this term. "The President,...

Referring to Cambridge, Bristed remarks: "The private tutor at an English university corresponds, as has been already observed, in many respects, to the _professor_ at a German....

"And when the glass of life is run, And I behold my setting sun, May conscience sound be my protection, And no ungrateful recollection, No gnawing cares nor tumbling woes, Distu...

Similar to these statements are those of Professor Sidney Willard relative to the same subject, contained in his late work entitled "Memories of Youth and Manhood." Speaking of...

[72] Thomas Mason, a member of the class after Prentiss, said to be the greatest _wrestler_ that was ever in College. He was settled as a clergyman at Northfield, Mass.; resigne...