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A Collection of College Words and Customs written by Benjamin Homer Hall

B >> Benjamin Homer Hall >> A Collection of College Words and Customs




The improved method of observing this day is noted in the annexed
extract. "Nearly every college has its own peculiar customs, which
have been transmitted from far antiquity; but Williams has perhaps
less than any other. Among ours are '_gravel day_,' 'chip day,'
and 'mountain day,' occurring one in each of the three terms. The
first usually comes in the early part of the Fall term. In old
times, when the students were few, and rather fonder of _work_
than at the present, they turned out with spades, hoes, and other
implements, and spread gravel over the walks, to the College
grounds; but in later days, they have preferred to tax themselves
to a small amount and delegate the work to others, while they
spend the day in visiting the Cascade, the Natural Bridge, or
others of the numerous places of interest near us."--_Boston Daily
Evening Traveller_, July 12, 1854.


GREAT GO. In the English universities the final and most important
examination is called the _great go_, in contradistinction to the
_little go_, an examination about the middle of the course.

In my way back I stepped into the _Great Go_ schools.--_The
Etonian_, Vol. II. p. 287.

Read through the whole five volumes folio, Latin, previous to
going up for his _Great Go_.--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 381.


GREEN. Inexperienced, unsophisticated, verdant. Among collegians
this term is the favorite appellation for Freshmen.

When a man is called _verdant_ or _green_, it means that he is
unsophisticated and raw. For instance, when a man rushes to chapel
in the morning at the ringing of the first bell, it is called
_green_. At least, we were, for it. This greenness, we would
remark, is not, like the verdure in the vision of the poet,
necessarily perennial.--_Williams Monthly Miscellany_, 1845, Vol.
I. p. 463.


GRIND. An exaction; an oppressive action. Students speak of a very
long lesson which they are required to learn, or of any thing
which it is very unpleasant or difficult to perform, as a _grind_.
This meaning is derived from the verb _to grind_, in the sense of
to harass, to afflict; as, to _grind_ the faces of the poor
(Isaiah iii. 15).

I must say 't is a _grind_, though
--(perchance I spoke too loud).
_Poem before Iadma_, 1850, p. 12.


GRINDING. Hard study; diligent application.

The successful candidate enjoys especial and excessive _grinding_
during the four years of his college course. _Burlesque Catalogue,
Yale Coll._, 1852-53, p. 28.


GROATS. At the English universities, "nine _groats_" says Grose,
in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, "are deposited in the
hands of an academic officer by every person standing for a
degree, which, if the depositor obtains with honor, are returned
to him."

_To save his groats_; to come off handsomely.--_Gradus ad Cantab._


GROUP. A crowd or throng; a number collected without any regular
form or arrangement. At Harvard College, students are not allowed
to assemble in _groups_, as is seen by the following extract from
the laws. Three persons together are considered as a _group_.

Collecting in _groups_ round the doors of the College buildings,
or in the yard, shall be considered a violation of decorum.--_Laws
Univ. at Cam., Mass._, 1848, Suppl., p. 4.


GROUPING. Collecting together.

It will surely be incomprehensible to most students how so large a
number as six could be suffered with impunity to horde themselves
together within the limits of the college yard. In those days the
very learned laws about _grouping_ were not in existence. A
collection of two was not then considered a sure prognostic of
rebellion, and spied out vigilantly by tutoric eyes. A _group_ of
three was not reckoned a gross outrage of the college peace, and
punished severely by the subtraction of some dozens from the
numerical rank of the unfortunate youth engaged in so high a
misdemeanor. A congregation of four was not esteemed an open,
avowed contempt of the laws of decency and propriety, prophesying
utter combustion, desolation, and destruction to all buildings and
trees in the neighborhood; and lastly, a multitude of five, though
watched with a little jealousy, was not called an intolerable,
unparalleled violation of everything approaching the name of
order, absolute, downright shamelessness, worthy capital
mark-punishment, alias the loss of 87-3/4 digits!--_Harvardiana_,
Vol. III. p. 314.

The above passage and the following are both evidently of a
satirical nature.

And often _grouping_ on the chains, he hums his own sweet verse,
Till Tutor ----, coming up, commands him to disperse!
_Poem before Y.H._, 1849, p. 14.


GRUB. A hard student. Used at Williams College, and synonymous
with DIG at other colleges. A correspondent says, writing from
Williams: "Our real delvers, midnight students, are familiarly
called _Grubs_. This is a very expressive name."

A man must not be ashamed to be called a _grub_ in college, if he
would shine in the world.--_Sketches of Williams College_, p. 76.

Some there are who, though never known to read or study, are ever
ready to debate,--not "_grubs_" or "reading men," only "wordy
men."--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 246.


GRUB. To study hard; to be what is denominated a _grub_, or hard
student. "The primary sense," says Dr. Webster, "is probably to
rub, to rake, scrape, or scratch, as wild animals dig by
scratching."

I can _grub out_ a lesson in Latin or mathematics as well as the
best of them.--_Amherst Indicator_, Vol. I. p. 223.


GUARDING. "The custom of _guarding_ Freshmen," says a
correspondent from Dartmouth College, "is comparatively a late
one. Persons masked would go into another's room at night, and
oblige him to do anything they commanded him, as to get under his
bed, sit with his feet in a pail of water," &c.


GULF. In the University of Cambridge, Eng., one who obtains the
degree of B.A., but has not his name inserted in the Calendar, is
said to be in the _gulf_.

He now begins to ... be anxious about ... that classical
acquaintance who is in danger of the _gulf_.--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 95.

Some ten or fifteen men just on the line, not bad enough to be
plucked or good enough to be placed, are put into the "_gulf_," as
it is popularly called (the Examiners' phrase is "Degrees
allowed"), and have their degrees given them, but are not printed
in the Calendar.--_Ibid._, p. 205.


GULFING. In the University of Cambridge, England, "those
candidates for B.A. who, but for sickness or some other sufficient
cause, might have obtained an honor, have their degree given them
without examination, and thus avoid having their names inserted in
the lists. This is called _Gulfing_." A degree taken in this
manner is called "an AEgrotat Degree."--_Alma Mater_, Vol. II. pp.
60, 105.

I discovered that my name was nowhere to be found,--that I was
_Gulfed_.--_Ibid._, Vol. II. p. 97.


GUM. A trick; a deception. In use at Dartmouth College.

_Gum_ is another word they have here. It means something like
chaw. To say, "It's all a _gum_," or "a regular chaw," is the same
thing.--_The Dartmouth_, Vol. IV. p. 117.


GUM. At the University of Vermont, to cheat in recitation by using
_ponies_, _interliners_, &c.; e.g. "he _gummed_ in geometry."

2. To cheat; to deceive. Not confined to college.

He was speaking of the "moon hoax" which "_gummed_" so many
learned philosophers.--_Yale Lit. Mag._, Vol. XIV. p. 189.


GUMMATION. A trick; raillery.

Our reception to college ground was by no means the most
hospitable, considering our unacquaintance with the manners of the
place, for, as poor "Fresh," we soon found ourselves subject to
all manner of sly tricks and "_gummations_" from our predecessors,
the Sophs.--_A Tour through College_, Boston, 1832, p. 13.


GYP. A cant term for a servant at Cambridge, England, at _scout_
is used at Oxford. Said to be a sportive application of [Greek:
gyps], a vulture.--_Smart_.

The word _Gyp_ very properly characterizes them.--_Gradus ad
Cantab._, p. 56.

And many a yawning _gyp_ comes slipshod in,
To wake his master ere the bells begin.
_The College_, in _Blackwood's Mag._, May, 1849.

The Freshman, when once safe through his examination, is first
inducted into his rooms by a _gyp_, usually recommended to him by
his tutor. The gyp (from [Greek: gyps], vulture, evidently a
nickname at first, but now the only name applied to this class of
persons) is a college servant, who attends upon a number of
students, sometimes as many as twenty, calls them in the morning,
brushes their clothes, carries for them parcels and the queerly
twisted notes they are continually writing to one another, waits
at their parties, and so on. Cleaning their boots is not in his
branch of the profession; there is a regular brigade of college
shoeblacks.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.
14.

It is sometimes spelled _Jip_, though probably by mistake.

My _Jip_ brought one in this morning; faith! and told me I was
focussed.--_Gent. Mag._, 1794, p. 1085.



_H_.


HALF-LESSON. In some American colleges on certain occasions the
students are required to learn only one half of the amount of an
ordinary lesson.

They promote it [the value of distinctions conferred by the
students on one another] by formally acknowledging the existence
of the larger debating societies in such acts as giving
"_half-lessons_" for the morning after the Wednesday night
debates.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 386.


HALF-YEAR. In the German universities, a collegiate term is called
a _half-year_.

The annual courses of instruction are divided into summer and
winter _half-years_.--_Howitt's Student Life of Germany_, Am. Ed.,
pp. 34, 35.


HALL. A college or large edifice belonging to a collegiate
institution.--_Webster_.

2. A collegiate body in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In the former institution a hall differs from a college, in that
halls are not incorporated; consequently, whatever estate or other
property they possess is held in trust by the University. In the
latter, colleges and halls are synonymous.--_Cam. and Oxf.
Calendars_.

"In Cambridge," says the author of the Collegian's Guide, "the
halls stand on the same footing as the colleges, but at Oxford
they did not, in my time, hold by any means so high a place in
general estimation. Certainly those halls which admit the outcasts
of other colleges, and of those alone I am now speaking, used to
be precisely what one would expect to find them; indeed, I had
rather that a son of mine should forego a university education
altogether, than that he should have so sorry a counterfeit of
academic advantages as one of these halls affords."--p. 172.

"All the Colleges at Cambridge," says Bristed, "have equal
privileges and rights, with the solitary exception of King's, and
though some of them are called _Halls_, the difference is merely
one of name. But the Halls at Oxford, of which there are five, are
not incorporated bodies, and have no vote in University matters,
indeed are but a sort of boarding-houses at which students may
remain until it is time for them to take a degree. I dined at one
of those establishments; it was very like an officers' mess. The
men had their own wine, and did not wear their gowns, and the only
Don belonging to the Hall was not present at table. There was a
tradition of a chapel belonging to the concern, but no one present
knew where it was. This Hall seemed to be a small Botany Bay of
both Universities, its members made up of all sorts of incapables
and incorrigibles."--_Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, pp.
140, 141.

3. At Cambridge and Oxford, the public eating-room.

I went into the public "_hall_" [so is called in Oxford the public
eating-room].--_De Quincey's Life and Manners_, p. 231.

Dinner is, in all colleges, a public meal, taken in the refectory
or "_hall_" of the society.--_Ibid._, p. 273.

4. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., dinner, the name of the
place where the meal is taken being given to the meal itself.

_Hall_ lasts about three quarters of an hour.--_Bristed's Five
Year in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 20.

After _Hall_ is emphatically lounging-time, it being the wise
practice of Englishmen to attempt no hard exercise, physical or
mental, immediately after a hearty meal.--_Ibid._, p. 21.

It is not safe to read after _Hall_ (i.e. after dinner).--_Ibid._,
p. 331.


HANG-OUT. An entertainment.

I remember the date from the Fourth of July occurring just
afterwards, which I celebrated by a "_hang-out_."--_Bristed's Five
Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 80.

He had kept me six hours at table, on the occasion of a dinner
which he gave ... as an appendix to and a return for some of my
"_hangings-out_."--_Ibid._, p. 198.


HANG OUT. To treat, to live, to have or possess. Among English
Cantabs, a verb of all-work.--_Bristed_.

There were but few pensioners who "_hung out_" servants of their
own.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p. 90.

I had become ... a man who knew and "_hung out_ to" clever and
pleasant people, and introduced agreeable lions to one
another.--_Ibid._, p. 158.

I had gained such a reputation for dinner-giving, that men going
to "_hang out_" sometimes asked me to compose bills of fare for
them.--_Ibid._, p. 195.


HARRY SOPHS, or HENRY SOPHISTERS; in reality Harisophs, a
corruption of Erisophs ([Greek: erisophos], _valde eruditus_). At
Cambridge, England, students who have kept all the terms required
for a law act, and hence are ranked as Bachelors of Law by
courtesy.--_Gradus ad Cantab._

See, also, Gentleman's Magazine, 1795, p. 818.


HARVARD WASHINGTON CORPS. From a memorandum on a fly leaf of an
old Triennial Catalogue, it would appear that a military company
was first established among the students of Harvard College about
the year 1769, and that its first captain was Mr. William Wetmore,
a graduate of the Class of 1770. The motto which it then assumed,
and continued to bear through every period of its existence, was,
"Tam Marti quam Mercurio." It was called at that time the Marti
Mercurian Band. The prescribed uniform was a blue coat, the skirts
turned with white, nankeen breeches, white stockings, top-boots,
and a cocked hat. This association continued for nearly twenty
years from the time of its organization, but the chivalrous spirit
which had called it into existence seems at the end of that time
to have faded away. The last captain, it is believed, was Mr.
Solomon Vose, a graduate of the class of 1787.

Under the auspices of Governor Gerry, in December of the year
1811, it was revived, and through his influence received a new
loan of arms from the State, taking at the same time the name of
the Harvard Washington Corps. In 1812, Mr. George Thacher was
appointed its commander. The members of the company wore a blue
coat, white vest, white pantaloons, white gaiters, a common black
hat, and around the waist a white belt, which was always kept very
neat, and to which were attached a bayonet and cartridge-box. The
officers wore the same dress, with the exceptions of a sash
instead of the belt, and a chapeau in place of the hat. Soon after
this reorganization, in the fall of 1812, a banner, with the arms
of the College on one side and the arms of the State on the other,
was presented by the beautiful Miss Mellen, daughter of Judge
Mellen of Cambridge, in the name of the ladies of that place. The
presentation took place before the door of her father's house.
Appropriate addresses were made, both by the fair donor and the
captain of the company. Mr. Frisbie, a Professor in the College,
who was at that time engaged to Miss Mellen, whom he afterwards
married, recited on the occasion the following verses impromptu,
which were received with great _eclat_.

"The standard's victory's leading star,
'T is danger to forsake it;
How altered are the scenes of war,
They're vanquished now who take it."

A writer in the Harvardiana, 1836, referring to this banner, says:
"The gilded banner now moulders away in inglorious quiet, in the
dusty retirement of a Senior Sophister's study. What a desecration
for that 'flag by angel hands to valor given'!"[40] Within the
last two years it has wholly disappeared from its accustomed
resting-place. Though departed, its memory will be ever dear to
those who saw it in its better days, and under its shadow enjoyed
many of the proudest moments of college life.

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 story of Hollis Hall.
The regular time for exercise was after the evening commons. The
drum would often beat before the meal was finished, and the
students could then be seen rushing forth with the half-eaten
biscuit, and at the same time buckling on their armor for the
accustomed drill. They usually paraded on exhibition-days, when
the large concourse of people afforded an excellent opportunity
for showing off their skill in military tactics and manoeuvring.
On the arrival of the news of the peace of 1815, it appears, from
an interleaved almanac, that "the H.W. Corps paraded and fired a
salute; Mr. Porter treated the company." Again, on the 12th of
May, same year, "H.W. Corps paraded in Charlestown, saluted Com.
Bainbridge, and returned by the way of Boston." The captain for
that year, Mr. W.H. Moulton, dying, on the 6th of July, at five
o'clock, P.M., "the class," says the same authority, "attended the
funeral of Br. Moulton in Boston. The H.W. Corps attended in
uniform, without arms, the ceremony of entombing their late
Captain."

In the year 1825, it received a third loan of arms, and was again
reorganized, admitting the members of all the classes to its
ranks. From this period until the year 1834, very great interest
was manifested in it; but a rebellion having broken out at that
time among the students, and the guns of the company having been
considerably damaged by being thrown from the windows of the
armory, which was then in University Hall, the company was
disbanded, and the arms were returned to the State.

The feelings with which it was regarded by the students generally
cannot be better shown than by quoting from some of the
publications in which reference is made to it. "Many are the grave
discussions and entry caucuses," says a writer in the Harvard
Register, published in 1828, "to determine what favored few are to
be graced with the sash and epaulets, and march as leaders in the
martial band. Whilst these important canvassings are going on, it
behooves even the humblest and meekest to beware how he buttons
his coat, or stiffens himself to a perpendicular, lest he be more
than suspected of aspiring to some military capacity. But the
_Harvard Washington Corps_ must not be passed over without further
notice. Who can tell what eagerness fills its ranks on an
exhibition-day? with what spirit and bounding step the glorious
phalanx wheels into the College yard? with what exultation they
mark their banner, as it comes floating on the breeze from
Holworthy? And ah! who cannot tell how this spirit expires, this
exultation goes out, when the clerk calls again and again for the
assessments."--p. 378.

A college poet has thus immortalized this distinguished band:--

"But see where yonder light-armed ranks advance!--
Their colors gleaming in the noonday glance,
Their steps symphonious with the drum's deep notes,
While high the buoyant, breeze-borne banner floats!
O, let not allied hosts yon band deride!
'T is _Harvard Corps_, our bulwark and our pride!
Mark, how like one great whole, instinct with life,
They seem to woo the dangers of the strife!
Who would not brave the heat, the dust, the rain,
To march the leader of that valiant train?"
_Harvard Register_, p. 235.

Another has sung its requiem in the following strain:--

"That martial band, 'neath waving stripes and stars
Inscribed alike to Mercury and Mars,
Those gallant warriors in their dread array,
Who shook these halls,--O where, alas! are they?
Gone! gone! and never to our ears shall come
The sounds of fife and spirit-stirring drum;
That war-worn banner slumbers in the dust,
Those bristling arms are dim with gathering rust;
That crested helm, that glittering sword, that plume,
Are laid to rest in reckless faction's tomb."
_Winslow's Class Poem_, 1835.


HAT FELLOW-COMMONER. At the University of Cambridge, Eng., the
popular name given to a baronet, the eldest son of a baronet, or
the younger son of a nobleman. A _Hat Fellow-Commoner_ wears the
gown of a Fellow-Commoner, with a hat instead of the velvet cap
with metallic tassel which a Fellow-Commoner wears, and is
admitted to the degree of M.A. after two years' residence.


HAULED UP. In many colleges, one brought up before the Faculty is
said to be _hauled up_.


HAZE. To trouble; to harass; to disturb. This word is used at
Harvard College, to express the treatment which Freshmen sometimes
receive from the higher classes, and especially from the
Sophomores. It is used among sailors with the meanings _to urge_,
_to drive_, _to harass_, especially with labor. In his Dictionary
of Americanisms, Mr. Bartlett says, "To haze round, is to go
rioting about."

Be ready, in fine, to cut, to drink, to smoke, to swear, to
_haze_, to dead, to spree,--in one word, to be a
Sophomore.--_Oration before H.L. of I.O. of O.F._, 1848, p. 11.

To him no orchard is unknown,--no grape-vine unappraised,--
No farmer's hen-roost yet unrobbed,--no Freshman yet _unhazed_!
_Poem before Y.H._, 1849, p. 9.

'T is the Sophomores rushing the Freshmen to _haze_.
_Poem before Iadma_, 1850, p. 22.

Never again
Leave unbolted your door when to rest you retire,
And, _unhazed_ and unmartyred, you proudly may scorn
Those foes to all Freshmen who 'gainst thee conspire.
_Ibid._, p. 23.

Freshmen have got quietly settled down to work, Sophs have given
up their _hazing_.--_Williams Quarterly_, Vol. II. p. 285.

We are glad to be able to record, that the absurd and barbarous
custom of _hazing_, which has long prevailed in College, is, to a
great degree, discontinued.--_Harv. Mag._, Vol. I. p. 413.

The various means which are made use of in _hazing_ the Freshmen
are enumerated in part below. In the first passage, a Sophomore
speaks in soliloquy.

I am a man,
Have human feelings, though mistaken Fresh
Affirmed I was a savage or a brute,
When I did dash cold water in their necks,
Discharged green squashes through their window-panes,
And stript their beds of soft, luxurious sheets,
Placing instead harsh briers and rough sticks,
So that their sluggish bodies might not sleep,
Unroused by morning bell; or when perforce,
From leaden syringe, engine of fierce might,
I drave black ink upon their ruffle shirts,
Or drenched with showers of melancholy hue,
The new-fledged dickey peering o'er the stock,
Fit emblem of a young ambitious mind!
_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 254.

A Freshman writes thus on the subject:--

The Sophs did nothing all the first fortnight but torment the
Fresh, as they call us. They would come to our rooms with masks
on, and frighten us dreadfully; and sometimes squirt water through
our keyholes, or throw a whole pailful on to one of us from the
upper windows.--_Harvardiana_, Vol. III. p. 76.


HEAD OF THE HOUSE. The generic name for the highest officer of a
college in the English Universities.

The Master of the College, or "_Head of the House_," is a D.D. who
has been a Fellow.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed.
2d, p. 16.

The _heads of houses_ [are] styled, according to the usage of the
college, President, Master, Principal, Provost, Warden, or Rector.
--_Oxford Guide_, 1847, p. xiii.

Written often simply _Head_.

The "_Head_," as he is called generically, of an Oxford college,
is a greater man than the uninitiated suppose.--_De Quincey's Life
and Manners_, p. 244.

The new _Head_ was a gentleman of most commanding personal
appearance.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, p.
87.


HEADSHIP. The office and place of head or president of a college.

Most of the college _Headships_ are not at the disposal of the
Crown.--_Bristed's Five Years in an Eng. Univ._, Ed. 2d, note, p.
89, and _errata_.

The _Headships_ of the colleges are, with the exception of
Worcester, filled by one chosen by the Fellows from among
themselves, or one who has been a Fellow.--_Oxford Guide_, Ed.
1847, p. xiv.


HEADS OUT. At Princeton College, the cry when anything occurs in
the _Campus_. Used, also, to give the alarm when a professor or
tutor is about to interrupt a spree.

See CAMPUS.


HEBDOMADAL BOARD. At Oxford, the local governing authority of the
University, composed of the Heads of colleges and the two
Proctors, and expressing itself through the Vice-Chancellor. An
institution of Charles I.'s time, it has possessed, since the year
1631, "the sole initiative power in the legislation of the
University, and the chief share in its administration." Its
meetings are held weekly, whence the name.--_Oxford Guide.
Literary World_, Vol. XII., p. 223.