Chapter 2

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 disguises, are always on hand when a wedding is to take place, and join in a most tremendous Charivari, nor can they be forced to retreat until they have received a due proportion of the sumptuous feast prepared."

APOSTLES. At Cambridge, England, the last twelve on the list of Bachelors of Arts; a degree lower than the [Greek: oi polloi] "Scape-goats of literature, who have at length scrambled through the pales and discipline of the Senate-House, without being _plucked_, and miraculously obtained the title of A.B."--_Gradus ad Cantab._

At Columbian College, D.C., the members of the Faculty are called after the names of the _Apostles_.

APPLICANT. A diligent student. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "has been much used at our colleges. The English have the verb _to apply_, but the noun _applicant_, in this sense, does not appear to be in use among them. The only Dictionary in which I have found it with this meaning is Entick's, in which it is given under the word _applier_. Mr. Todd has the term _applicant_, but it is only in the sense of 'he who applies for anything.' An American reviewer, in his remarks on Mr. Webster's Dictionary, takes notice of the word, observing, that it 'is a mean word'; and then adds, that 'Mr. Webster has not explained it in the most common sense, a _hard student_.'--_Monthly Anthology_, Vol. VII. p. 263. A correspondent observes: 'The utmost that can be said of this word among the English is, that perhaps it is occasionally used in conversation; at least, to signify one who asks (or applies) for something.'" At present the word _applicant_ is never used in the sense of a diligent student, the common signification being that given by Mr. Webster, "One who applies; one who makes request; a petitioner."

APPOINTEE. One who receives an appointment at a college exhibition or commencement.

The _appointees_ are writing their pieces.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, p. 193.

To the gratified _appointee_,--if his ambition for the honor has the intensity it has in some bosoms,--the day is the proudest he will ever see.--_Ibid._, p. 194.

I suspect that a man in the first class of the "Poll" has usually read mathematics to more profit than many of the "_appointees_," even of the "oration men" at Yale.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 382.

He hears it said all about him that the College _appointees_ are for the most part poor dull fellows.--_Ibid._, p. 389.

APPOINTMENT. In many American colleges, students to whom are assigned a part in the exercises of an exhibition or commencement, are said to receive an _appointment_. Appointments are given as a reward for superiority in scholarship.

As it regards college, the object of _appointments_ is to incite to study, and promote good scholarship.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, p. 69.

If e'er ye would take an "_appointment_" young man, Beware o' the "blade" and "fine fellow," young man! _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XV. p. 210.

Some have crammed for _appointments_, and some for degrees. _Presentation Day Songs_, Yale Coll., June 14, 1854.

See JUNIOR APPOINTMENTS.

APPROBAMUS. Latin; _we approve_. A certificate, given to a student, testifying of his fitness for the performance of certain duties.

In an account of the exercises at Dartmouth College during the Commencement season in 1774, Dr. Belknap makes use of this word in the following connection: "I attended, with several others, the examination of Joseph Johnson, an Indian, educated in this school, who, with the rest of the New England Indians, are about moving up into the country of the Six Nations, where they have a tract of land fifteen miles square given them. He appeared to be an ingenious, sensible, serious young man; and we gave him an _approbamus_, of which there is a copy on the next page. After which, at three P.M., he preached in the college hall, and a collection of twenty-seven dollars and a half was made for him. The auditors were agreeably entertained.

"The _approbamus_ is as follows."--_Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D._, pp. 71, 72.

APPROBATE. To express approbation of; to manifest a liking, or degree of satisfaction.--_Webster_.

The cause of this battle every man did allow and _approbate_.--_Hall, Henry VII., Richardson's Dict._

"This word," says Mr. Pickering, "was formerly much used at our colleges instead of the old English verb _approve_. The students used to speak of having their performances _approbated_ by the instructors. It is also now in common use with our clergy as a sort of technical term, to denote a person who is licensed to preach; they would say, such a one is _approbated_, that is, licensed to preach. It is also common in New England to say of a person who is licensed by the county courts to sell spirituous liquors, or to keep a public house, that he is approbated; and the term is adopted in the law of Massachusetts on this subject." The word is obsolete in England, is obsolescent at our colleges, and is very seldom heard in the other senses given above.

By the twelfth statute, a student incurs ... no penalty by declaiming or attempting to declaim without having his piece previously _approbated_.--_MS. Note to Laws of Harvard College_, 1798.

Observe their faces as they enter, and you will perceive some shades there, which, if they are _approbated_ and admitted, will be gone when they come out.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, p. 18.

How often does the professor whose duty it is to criticise and _approbate_ the pieces for this exhibition wish they were better! --_Ibid._, p. 195.

I was _approbated_ by the Boston Association, I suspect, as a person well known, but known as an anomaly, and admitted in charity.--_Memorial of John S. Popkin, D.D._, p. lxxxv.

ASSES' BRIDGE. The fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid is called the _Asses' Bridge_, or rather "Pons Asinorum," from the difficulty with which many get over it.

The _Asses' Bridge_ in Euclid is not more difficult to be got over, nor the logarithms of Napier so hard to be unravelled, as many of Hoyle's Cases and Propositions.--_The Connoisseur_, No. LX.

After Mr. Brown had passed us over the "_Asses' Bridge_," without any serious accident, and conducted us a few steps further into the first book, he dismissed us with many compliments.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 126.

I don't believe he passed the _Pons Asinorum_ without many a halt and a stumble.--_Ibid._, Vol. I. p. 146.

ASSESSOR. In the English universities, an officer specially appointed to assist the Vice-Chancellor in his court.--_Cam. Cal._

AUCTION. At Harvard College, it was until within a few years customary for the members of the Senior Class, previously to leaving college, to bring together in some convenient room all the books, furniture, and movables of any kind which they wished to dispose of, and put them up at public auction. Everything offered was either sold, or, if no bidders could be obtained, given away.

AUDIT. In the University of Cambridge, England, a meeting of the Master and Fellows to examine or _audit_ the college accounts. This is succeeded by a feast, on which occasion is broached the very best ale, for which reason ale of this character is called "audit ale."--_Grad. ad Cantab._

This use of the word thirst made me drink an extra bumper of "_Audit_" that very day at dinner.--_Alma Mater_, Vol. I. p. 3.

After a few draughts of the _Audit_, the company disperse.--_Ibid._ Vol. I. p. 161.

AUTHORITY. "This word," says Mr. Pickering, in his Vocabulary, "is used in some of the States, in speaking collectively of the Professors, &c. of our colleges, to whom the _government_ of these institutions is intrusted."

Every Freshman shall be obliged to do any proper errand or message for the _Authority_ of the College.--_Laws Middlebury Coll._, 1804, p. 6.

AUTOGRAPH BOOK. It is customary at Yale College for each member of the Senior Class, before the close of his collegiate life, to obtain, in a book prepared for that purpose, the signatures of the President, Professors, Tutors, and of all his classmates, with anything else which they may choose to insert. Opposite the autographs of the college officers are placed engravings of them, so far as they are obtainable; and the whole, bound according to the fancy of each, forms a most valuable collection of agreeable mementos.

When news of his death reached me. I turned to my _book of classmate autographs_, to see what he had written there, and to read a name unusually dear.--_Scenes and Characters in College_, New Haven, 1847, p. 201.

AVERAGE BOOK. At Harvard College, a book in which the marks received by each student, for the proper performance of his college duties, are entered; also the deductions from his rank resulting from misconduct. These unequal data are then arranged in a mean proportion, and the result signifies the standing which the student has held for a given period.

In vain the Prex's grave rebuke, Deductions from the _average book_. _MS. Poem_, W.F. Allen, 1848.

_B_.

B.A. An abbreviation of _Baccalaureus Artium_, Bachelor of Arts. The first degree taken by a student at a college or university. Sometimes written A.B., which is in accordance with the proper Latin arrangement. In American colleges this degree is conferred in course on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In the English universities, it is given to the candidate who has been resident at least half of each of ten terms, i.e. during a certain portion of a period extending over three and a third years, and who has passed the University examinations.

The method of conferring the degree of B.A. at Trinity College, Hartford, is peculiar. The President takes the hands of each candidate in his own as he confers the degree. He also passes to the candidate a book containing the College Statutes, which the candidate holds in his right hand during the performance of a part of the ceremony.

The initials of English academical titles always correspond to the _English_, not to the Latin of the titles, _B.A._, M.A., D.D., D.C.L., &c.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 13.

See BACHELOR.

BACCALAUREATE. The degree of Bachelor of Arts; the first or lowest degree. In American colleges, this degree is conferred in course on each member of the Senior Class in good standing. In Oxford and Cambridge it is attainable in two different ways;--1. By examination, to which those students alone are admissible who have pursued the prescribed course of study for the space of three years. 2. By extraordinary diploma, granted to individuals wholly unconnected with the University. The former class are styled Baccalaurei Formati, the latter Baccalaurei Currentes. In France the degree of Baccalaureat (Baccalaureus Literarum) is conferred indiscriminately upon such natives or foreigners and after a strict examination in the classics, mathematics, and philosophy, are declared to be qualified. In the German universities, the title "Doctor Philosophiæ" has long been substituted for Baccalaureus Artium or Literarum. In the Middle Ages, the term Baccalaureus was applied to an inferior order of knights, who came into the field unattended by vassals; from them it was transferred to the lowest class of ecclesiastics; and thence again, by Pope Gregory the Ninth to the universities. In reference to the derivation of this word, the military classes maintain that it is either derived from the _baculus_ or staff with which knights were usually invested, or from _bas chevalier_, an inferior kind of knight; the literary classes, with more plausibility, perhaps, trace its origin to the custom which prevailed universally among the Greeks and Romans, and which was followed even in Italy till the thirteenth century, of crowning distinguished individuals with laurel; hence the recipient of this honor was style Baccalaureus, quasi _baccis laureis_ donatus.--_Brande's Dictionary_.

The subjoined passage, although it may not place the subject in any clearer light, will show the difference of opinion which exists in reference to the derivation of this work. Speaking of the exercises of Commencement at Cambridge Mass., in the early days of Harvard College, the writer says "But the main exercises were disputations upon questions wherein the respondents first made their Theses: For according to Vossius, the very essence of the Baccalaureat seems to lye in the thing: Baccalaureus being but a name corrupted of Batualius, which Batualius (as well as the French Bataile [Bataille]) comes à Batuendo, a business that carries beating in it: So that, Batualii fuerunt vocati, quia jam quasi _batuissent_ cum adversario, ac manus conseruissent; hoc est, publice disputassent, atque ita peritiæ suæ specimen dedissent."--_Mather's Magnalia_, B. IV. p. 128.

The Seniors will be examined for the _Baccalaureate_, four weeks before Commencement, by a committee, in connection with the Faculty.--_Cal. Wesleyan Univ._, 1849, p. 22.

BACHELOR. A person who has taken the first degree in the liberal arts and sciences, at a college or university. This degree, or honor, is called the _Baccalaureate_. This title is given also to such as take the first degree in divinity, law, or physic, in certain European universities. The word appears in various forms in different languages. The following are taken from _Webster's Unabridged Dictionary_. "French, _bachelier_; Spanish, _bachiller_, a bachelor of arts and a babbler; Portuguese, _bacharel_, id., and _bacello_, a shoot or twig of the vine; Italian, _baccelliere_, a bachelor of arts; _bacchio_, a staff; _bachetta_, a rod; Latin, _bacillus_, a stick, that is, a shoot; French, _bachelette_, a damsel, or young woman; Scotch, _baich_, a child; Welsh, _bacgen_, a boy, a child; _bacgenes_, a young girl, from _bac_, small. This word has its origin in the name of a child, or young person of either sex, whence the sense of _babbling_ in the Spanish. Or both senses are rather from shooting, protruding."

Of the various etymologies ascribed to the term _Bachelor_, "the true one, and the most flattering," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "seems to be _bacca laurus_. Those who either are, or expect to be, honored with the title of _Bachelor of Arts_, will hear with exultation, that they are then 'considered as the budding flowers of the University; as the small _pillula_, or _bacca_, of the _laurel_ indicates the flowering of that tree, which is so generally used in the crowns of those who have deserved well, both of the military states, and of the republic of learning.'--_Carter's History of Cambridge, [Eng.]_, 1753."

BACHELOR FELLOW. A Bachelor of Arts who is maintained on a fellowship.

BACHELOR SCHOLAR. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., a B.A. who remains in residence after taking his degree, for the purpose of reading for a fellowship or acting as private tutor. He is always noted for superiority in scholarship.

Bristed refers to the bachelor scholars in the annexed extract. "Along the wall you see two tables, which, though less carefully provided than the Fellows', are still served with tolerable decency and go through a regular second course instead of the 'sizings.' The occupants of the upper or inner table are men apparently from twenty-two to twenty-six years of age, and wear black gowns with two strings hanging loose in front. If this table has less state than the adjoining one of the Fellows, it has more mirth and brilliancy; many a good joke seems to be going the rounds. These are the Bachelors, most of them Scholars reading for Fellowships, and nearly all of them private tutors. Although Bachelors in Arts, they are considered, both as respects the College and the University, to be _in statu pupillari_ until they become M.A.'s. They pay a small sum in fees nominally for tuition, and are liable to the authority of that mighty man, the Proctor." --_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 20.

BACHELORSHIP. The state of one who has taken his first degree in a university or college.--_Webster_.

BACK-LESSON. A lesson which has not been learned or recited; a lesson which has been omitted.

In a moment you may see the yard covered with hurrying groups, some just released from metaphysics or the blackboard, and some just arisen from their beds where they have indulged in the luxury of sleeping over,--a luxury, however, which is sadly diminished by the anticipated necessity of making up _back-lessons_.--_Harv. Reg._, p. 202.

BALBUS. At Yale College, this term is applied to Arnold's Latin Prose Composition, from the fact of its so frequent occurrence in that work. If a student wishes to inform his fellow-student that he is engaged on Latin Prose Composition, he says he is studying _Balbus_. In the first example of this book, the first sentence reads, "I and Balbus lifted up our hands," and the name Balbus appears in almost every exercise.

BALL UP. At Middlebury College, to fail at recitation or examination.

BANDS. Linen ornaments, worn by professors and clergymen when officiating; also by judges, barristers, &c., in court. They form a distinguishing mark in the costume of the proctors of the English universities, and at Cambridge, the questionists, on admission to their degrees, are by the statutes obliged to appear in them.--_Grad. ad Cantab._

BANGER. A club-like cane or stick; a bludgeon. This word is one of the Yale vocables.

The Freshman reluctantly turned the key, Expecting a Sophomore gang to see, Who, with faces masked and _bangers_ stout, Had come resolved to smoke him out. _Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XX. p. 75.

BARBER. In the English universities, the college barber is often employed by the students to write out or translate the impositions incurred by them. Those who by this means get rid of their impositions are said to _barberize_ them.

So bad was the hand which poor Jenkinson wrote, that the many impositions which he incurred would have kept him hard at work all day long; so he _barberized_ them, that is, handed them over to the college barber, who had always some poor scholars in his pay. This practice of barberizing is not uncommon among a certain class of men.--_Collegian's Guide_, p. 155.

BARNEY. At Harvard College, about the year 1810, this word was used to designate a bad recitation. To _barney_ was to recite badly.

BARNWELL. At Cambridge, Eng., a place of resort for characters of bad report.

One of the most "civilized" undertook to banter me on my non-appearance in the classic regions of _Barnwell_.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 31.

BARRING-OUT SPREE. At Princeton College, when the students find the North College clear of Tutors, which is about once a year, they bar up the entrance, get access to the bell, and ring it.

In the "Life of Edward Baines, late M.P. for the Borough of Leeds," is an account of a _barring-out_, as managed at the grammar school at Preston, England. It is related in Dickens's Household Words to this effect. "His master was pompous and ignorant, and smote his pupils liberally with cane and tongue. It is not surprising that the lads learnt as much from the spirit of their master as from his preceptions and that one of those juvenile rebellions, better known as old than at present as a '_barring-out_,' was attempted. The doors of the school, the biographer narrates, were fastened with huge nails, and one of the younger lads was let out to obtain supplies of food for the garrison. The rebellion having lasted two or three days, the mayor, town-clerk, and officers were sent for to intimidate the offenders. Young Baines, on the part of the besieged, answered the magisterial summons to surrender, by declaring that they would never give in, unless assured of full pardon and a certain length of holidays. With much good sense, the mayor gave them till the evening to consider; and on his second visit the doors were found open, the garrison having fled to the woods of Penwortham. They regained their respective homes under the cover of night, and some humane interposition averted the punishment they had deserved."-- Am. Ed. Vol. III. p. 415.

BATTEL. To stand indebted on the college books at Oxford for provisions and drink from the buttery.

Eat my commons with a good stomach, and _battled_ with discretion. --_Puritan_, Malone's Suppl. 2, p. 543.

Many men "_battel_" at the rate of a guinea a week. Wealthier men, more expensive men, and more careless men, often "_battelled_" much higher.--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 274.

Cotgrave says, "To _battle_ (as scholars do in Oxford) être debteur an collège pour ses vivres." He adds, "Mot usé seulement des jeunes écoliers de l'université d'Oxford."

2. To reside at the university; to keep terms.--_Webster_.

BATTEL. Derived from the old monkish word _patella_, or _batella_, a plate. At Oxford, "whatsoever is furnished for dinner and for supper, including malt liquor, but not wine, as well as the materials for breakfast, or for any casual refreshment to country visitors, excepting only groceries," is expressed by the word _battels_.--_De Quincey_.

I on the nail my _Battels_ paid, The monster turn'd away dismay'd. _The Student_, Vol. I. p. 115, 1750.

BATTELER, BATTLER. A student at Oxford who stands indebted, in the college books, for provisions and drink at the buttery.--_Webster_.

Halliwell, in his Dict. Arch. and Prov. Words, says, "The term is used in contradistinction to gentleman commoner." In _Gent. Mag._, 1787, p. 1146, is the following:--"There was formerly at Oxford an order similar to the sizars of Cambridge, called _battelers_ (_batteling_ having the same signification as sizing). The _sizar_ and _batteler_ were as independent as any other members of the college, though of an inferior order, and were under no obligation to wait upon anybody."

2. One who keeps terms, or resides at the University.--_Webster_.

BATTELING. At Oxford, the act of taking provisions from the buttery. Batteling has the same signification as SIZING at the University of Cambridge.--_Gent. Mag._, 1787, p. 1146.

_Batteling in a friend's name_, implies eating and drinking at his expense. When a person's name is _crossed in the buttery_, i.e. when he is not allowed to take any articles thence, he usually comes into the hall and battels for buttery supplies in a friend's name, "for," says the Collegian's Guide, "every man can 'take out' an extra commons, and some colleges two, at each meal, for a visitor: and thus, under the name of a guest, though at your own table, you escape part of the punishment of being crossed."--p. 158.

2. Spending money.

The business of the latter was to call us of a morning, to distribute among us our _battlings_, or pocket money, &c.--_Dicken's Household Words_, Vol. I. p. 188.

BAUM. At Hamilton College, to fawn upon; to flatter; to court the favor of any one.

B.C.L. Abbreviated for _Baccalaureus Civilis Legis_, Bachelor in Civil Law. In the University of Oxford, a Bachelor in Civil Law must be an M.A. and a regent of three years' standing. The exercises necessary to the degree are disputations upon two distinct days before the Professors of the Faculty of Law.

In the University of Cambridge, the candidate for this degree must have resided nine terms (equal to three years), and been on the boards of some College for six years, have passed the "previous examination," attended the lectures of the Professor of Civil Law for three terms, and passed a _series_ of examinations in the subject of them; that is to say in General Jurisprudence, as illustrated by Roman and English law. The names of those who pass creditably are arranged in three classes according to merit.--_Lit. World_, Vol. XII. p. 284.